Hochiki life safety devices reduce false alarms on Dubai Metro

Designed to accommodate anything up to 13,380 passengers per hour on its green line section and 11,675 passengers per hour on the red line segment of the network at peak times, the Dubai Metro is almost 75 km long and is operated by RTA and Serco.

Under contract to the Dubai Roads and Transport Authority, the network is managed by a team of 2,000 staff with 57 trains running at peak times.

Dafoos Fire and Security was commissioned to preside over the installation of a new fire detection regime covering the entirety of the Dubai Metro. Trusted as a market leader in the fire protection sector within the United Arab Emirates, Dafoos Fire and Security specialises in providing end-to-end design, installation, commissioning and maintenance of both active and passive fire protection systems.

Indeed, the company actively partners with some of the very best OEMs in the world, among them Hochiki.

Mass disruption

With tens of thousands of passengers using the network daily and the system itself operating in a hot and sandy environment, any false alarm could potentially cause mass disruption and cost the Dubai Metro’s operator a substantial amount of money, and notably so during peak service times.

Commenting on the project, Dafoos Fire and Security’s marketing director Vijay Chandran stated: “As part of the life safety system design process, it was particularly important to negate false alarms. Hochiki’s fire detection devices were chosen, When it comes to false alarm reductions, they have a reputation for being the best in the market in terms of quality and reliability. Our choice of Hochiki’s systems was supported by RTA and Serco.”

The Hochiki sensors are installed inside the metro and tram coaches. This is considered an extremely sensitive area. Thousands of people can be in transit at any given time and, therefore, there’s an elevated potential for the triggering of false alarms. On that basis, any fire alarm trigger has been programmed to send a command to the central monitoring station. This then halts operations across the entire network until the problem is rectified.

Dust build-up

The Hochiki technical team also worked closely with the Dafoos Fire and Security team members to negate the challenge of frequent dust build-up in the chambers. Periodic maintenance of the sensors was altered from every six months to every couple of months, which is customary practice for commercial buildings in the region.

Chandran concluded: “Hochiki’s smoke sensors have been installed across the entire Dubai Metro and tram coaches and have been functioning with minimal issues. Periodic maintenance has been conducted in conjunction with the recommendations of Hochiki’s technical team. We would not hesitate to recommend Hochiki’s life safety systems and products to be deployed for other projects within the transport sector.”

*Further information is available online at www.hochikieurope.com