C-Tec for new Elephant & Castle residential building

Premium Supporting Member C-TEC’s revolutionary new evacuation alert system, EVAC-ALERT, has been specified for a new purpose-built residential building in London.

Located in the Elephant and Castle area of the London Borough of Southwark, Joyce Newman House is an 8-storey block of 40 spacious living spaces commissioned by Leathermarket JMB, Southwark’s largest resident-managed housing organisation. The affordable-housing development also features landscaped gardens, an interactive playground and a communal kitchen garden for residents to grow their own vegetables.

Specified and supplied by Churches Fire & Security working alongside Blu Electrical Installations Ltd, EVAC-ALERT has been specifically designed to comply with the new BS 8629, which recommends evacuation alert systems be installed in all new blocks of flats over 18 metres to assist the Fire and Rescue Service (FRS) in evacuating part or all of a building in an emergency.

The system consists of a 2-loop control panel connected to a host of single and multi-way interface units, self-testing sounders and visual indicators. Simple and intuitive with manual controls to allow firefighters to easily operate the evacuation alert devices located inside flats on a zone by zone or floor by floor basis, the panel is stored in a secure vandal resistant cabinet which can only be accessed by the FRS using a special copy-protected key.

David Collins, Project Manager at Churches Fire & Security, said: “Evacuation alert systems ensure firefighters can alert occupants in a building of the need to evacuate if a fire gets out of control. The EVAC-ALERT system we’ve specified provides peace of mind for residents and, crucially, also demonstrates that building management have taken every precaution possible to protect the people residing in the property. Our client is delighted with the system.”

Certified to all relevant EN54 product standards, EVAC-ALERT is powered by C-TEC’s CAST protocol and fully compatible with ENVISION, its powerful new Cloud-based fire alarm remote access, service and site management software package which can be used to provide duty holders with a verifiable audit trail of system activity and device testing.