Jigawa State Institute of Information Technology, Kazaure (JSIIT)

College of Engineering and Technology

Department of Computer Engineering

Project

DESIGN AND IMPLIMENTATION OF FIRE ALAM CIRCIUT

By
Sani Lawan JSIIT/19/NDCE/003
Abubakar Mukhtar JSIIT/19/NDCE/013

Supervisor
Engr. Shamsuddeen Abdullahi

DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER ENGINEERING

JIGAWA STATE INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, KAZAURE

MARCH 2022

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 DECLARATION

I SANI LAWAN with Reg. No: JSIIT/19/NDCE/0003 and ABUBAKAR MUKHTAR with Reg. No:
JSSIIT/19/0013 hereby solemnly declares that this dissertation is a product of our effort,
undertaken under the supervision of ENGR. SHAMSUDDEEN ABDULLAHI. It is an original
work and no part of it has ever been published for any DIPLOMA PROGRAM anywhere. All
the sources of information used had been duly acknowledged through references and any
.error (omission or commission) is not with intention, and it’s highly regretted

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 DEDICATION

This research work is dedicated to Almighty Allah for sparing my life and giving me the
strength, wisdom, understanding and guidance to complete the National diploma in computer
.engineering and to our parent and all members of our family and friend for their support

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Thanks be to almighty Allah, the beneficent, the merciful. May the peace and blessings of
Allah continue to shower on his messenger (SAW), his companions, his household and those
.who follow him until the day of reckoning, Ameen

More so, a profound gratitude and appreciation goes to our parents whose love and guidance
are with me in whatever we pursue they are our ultimate role models. We also wish to
appreciate the entire members of our family, for their immense support, love and prayers
towards all my endeavors and successes in life

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 CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the study

In many modern societies, it is impossible to imagine house or building without a fire
accident detector. Modern houses require a continuous installation of fire detector. Not only
industry, but also in the household. Take the case of a duplex that experience a fire accident
without a detector that means everything in that building will get burnt even human beings.
But in a case whereby fire alarm is installed that means everyone in that building will be
alerted and also fire security bodies will also be informed for quick security action. The same
thing can also happen to our offices and industries. In order to notify residence of any
building in the presence of fire accident, a fire alarm system is used.
An automatic fire alarm system is designed to detect the unwanted presence of fire by
monitoring environmental changes associated with combustion. In general, a fire alarm
system is classified as either automatically actuated, manually actuated, or both. Automatic
fire alarm systems are intended to notify the building occupants to evacuate in the event of a
fire or other emergency, report the event to an off-premises location in order to summon
emergency services, and to prepare the structure and associated systems to control the
spread of fire and smoke.
The very first fire alarm system was invented by Dr. William F. Channing and Moses Farmer in
1852, and their original design was two fire alarm boxes, each containing a telegraphic key
with a handle attached. When someone detected a fire, they would crank the handle, which
would then relay the details of the fire alarm box number to a central alarm station. The
operator at the station would receive the message, which would then be forwarded to the
fire department.
Francis Robbins Upton was the man responsible for designing the first electric fire alarm, but
when he patented the design in 1890, the patenting office mistakenly recorded it as the
“Portable Electric Tire Alarm”. Oh dear!

Although the design was largely unpopular at first and received little attention, it soon
became apparent that the need for this device was growing.

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HISTORY OF FIRE ALARM

Fire alarm systems have come a long way with a remarkable history. The first fire fighters
were organized town and community members who worked in scheduled shifts walking
through their home towns with bells and whistles they could ring or blow for assistance
when a fire was spotted. New York, in the United States, already had this practice in place as
far back as 1968. Although it was mostly difficult tracing the location of the manually
sounded alarm, this system was undoubtedly helpful for the safety of the town. Fire alarms
became a little more advanced in the 1800s with the positioning of bell towers in strategic
parts of cities to warn off people of a fire.

Dr. William F. Channing, assisted by Moses G. Farmer, invented the first fire alarm system in
1852 and the first alarm received by the system occurred the following day. It was a
telegraph system that was made up of three bells and three box circuits, 16 alarm bells, 40
boxes and a central office mechanism. With the exception of adding electronic decoding
terminals to it in 1988 the system has been largely unchanged to present day. The telegraph
system employed two alarm boxes with a telegraphic key to report neighborhood fires.
Someone had to crank the handle that was attached to the box, releasing the key to send out
a message to the central alarm station. At the central station, the telegrapher would then
send out the address of the location to the fire department.

In 1890 Francis Robbins Upton designed and patented the first electric fire alarm. Although
his invention received little attention and was largely disfavored, it soon became apparent
that the need for this device was growing.

By 2014, fire alarm systems had evolved to operate independently of any electrical utility
lines or telephone lines. Today, the newest development of the fire alarm system has been
the addressable head. Before the addressable head, there was a control panel with an
alphanumeric display that indicated what zone was being affected. With the addressable
head, the origin and location can be pinpointed directly.

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1.2 Aims
1. To decrease the high rate of mortality of peoples
2. To be alerting when there is fire outbreak
3. To determine the present of fire outbreak dangerous
4. To inform the particular people around the area there is problem
5. To inform the fire fighters there is fire outbreak in the area

1.3 Objectives
The objective of this work is to construct a device that will detect the unwanted presence

of fire by monitoring environmental changes associated with combustion.

1.4 Plan of Activities

The various stages involved in the development of this project have been properly put into
five chapters to enhance comprehensive and concise reading. In this project thesis, the
project is organized sequentially as follows:
Chapter one of this work is on the introduction to a fire alarm. In this chapter, the
background of the study, aims and objective, plan of activities.
Chapter two is on literature review of a fire alarm. In this chapter, overview section one,
section two, summary.
Chapter three is on system analysis and design methodology in this chapter. System
requirement, system design and implementation, summary.
Chapter four is on system implementation. Testing analysis, result, and discussion.
Chapter five is on summary, conclusion, and recommendation feature work, references and
appendix.

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 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Overview
Fire alarm system warns people when smoke, fire, carbon monoxide or other fire-related
emergencies are detected. These alarms may be activated automatically from smoke
detectors and heat detectors or may also be activated via manual fire alarm activation
devices such as manual call points or pull stations. Alarms can be either motorized bells or
wall mountable sounders or horns. They can also be speaker strobes which sound an alarm,
followed by a voice evacuation message which warns people inside the building not to use
the elevators. Fire alarm sounders can be set to certain frequencies and different tones
including low, medium and high, depending on the country and manufacturer of the device.
Most fire alarm systems in Europe sound like a siren with alternating frequencies. Fire alarm
electronic devices are known as horns in the United States and Canada, and can be either
continuous or set to different codes. Fire alarm warning devices can also be set to different
volume levels.

Section 1

What is smoke detector:

A smoke detector is a device that detects smoke, typically as an indicator of fire. Commercial,
industrial, and mass residential devices issue a signal to a fire alarm system, while household
detectors, known as smoke alarms, generally issue a local audible or visual alarm from the
detector itself.

Types of Smoke Detector:

There are two main kinds of smoke detectors. Such as-

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 1. Photoelectric smoke detectors and
2. Ionization smoke detectors

Importance of Smoke Detectors:

A smoke detectors purpose is a simple one, to give you ample notification in case of a fire in
your house. Without a smoke detector, by the time you realize that there is a fire, your house
could be so badly engulfed that you cannot find a safe exit or the smoke can be so
overwhelming that you suffocate trying to get out.
The National Fire Protection Association reports that while 75 percent of homes have at least
one working smoke alarm, between 2003 and 2006, 66 percent of fire deaths happened in
homes with no working smoke alarm.

How Smoke Detectors Work:

Photoelectric sensors generate a beam of light focused on a light-sensitive cell, enclosed in
the alarm. If the light beam is interrupted from smoke entering the detector, the alarm goes
off.
Ionization sensors work by having a small piece of radioactive material create an electric
current between two plates.

If smoke or hot air enters the chamber, the reaction is changed and the current is disrupted,
causing the alarm to go off. Photoelectric smoke detectors work best with slow, smoky fires
and ionization detectors work best with quick, hot fires.

2.2 SECTION 2

A key aspect of fire protection is to identify a developing fire emergency in a timely manner,
and to alert the building’s occupants and fire emergency.

Fire alarm systems (also commonly called smoke alarm and a smoke detector) provide a
means to detect and identify a fire or a potential fire outbreak in a building, warn the
occupants of the building about the fire via audible alarm and potentially notify emergency
response professionals. The main components of a fire alarm system are typically the smoke
detectors (and other detectors like heat, gas detectors), manual call points (also called ‘break
glass’) which enable a person who physically detects fire to raise the alarm, bell or alarm

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sounders, flashers, and control panel (central control and indicating equipment) which is the
brain of the system. Some advantages of fire alarms include an early warning benefit and the
potential to save life and property, low cost and the opportunity to place the device in
chosen locations.

The fire alarm systems we use today may involve smart sensors, intelligent control panels
and integration with other building services, but the core essence of fire alarm systems
hasn’t changed – give the occupants of buildings an early and clear warning of a fire.

The main components of a fire alarm system are the smoke detectors (and other detectors
like heat, gas detectors), manual call points which enable a person who physically detects fire
to raise the alarm, bell or alarm sounders, flashers, and control panel which is the brain of
the system.

Types of Fire Alarm Systems

There are two main types of fire alarm

1. Conventional and
2. Addressable.
Conventional (also four-wire) fire alarm systems are less expensive to purchase and are
mostly used in smaller properties such as shops and restaurants. In this system, a
building is divided into a number of detection zones with one or multiple detector in a
zone. All the detectors and manual call points in the zone are hardwired to a dedicated
circuit on the control panel. Each bell or alarm sounded in this system is connected via a
separate two-core wire to a dedicated loop. When a detector is activated (just another
way of saying when it detects smoke or fire), the control panel indicates the zone from
which that detector was triggered. The drawback is that the respective zone has to be
manually checked in order to pinpoint the exact source of the alarm. This can be time-
consuming in an emergency, especially in zones with a large number of devices.
A modification of the four-wire conventional system is the two-wire fire alarm based on
the same technology as the conventional system. A two-wire system uses the same set
of two-core cables to connect all the devices – call points, detectors, and bell – in a single

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 zone to the control panel. Two-wire systems are more functional, flexible and overall,
less expensive to install and operate than their four-wire counterpart but cost more to
purchase. Conventional systems only provide detection information particular to a zone
but not the individual devices in the zone

Conventional Fire Alarm Control Panel

In contrast, addressable fire alarm systems provide specific information on individual

detectors. Addressable systems are intelligent and they employ one or more single loop
wiring to connect different types of detectors or other initiating devices. Each device
(detectors, call points, etc.) have a unique address or identifier. The control panel regularly
queries every connected device which in turn reports their precise location, health status,
errors or fire and the relevant information from the devices are displayed by the control
panel. Addressable systems have greater flexibility, control, and speed of identification than
conventional systems but they are more complicated and more expensive to deploy. They
are best suited to large commercial buildings and premises with intricate networked
requirements.

Other types of fire alarm system are wireless fire alarms which are battery-powered and
sometime radio-linked, and aspirating smoke detection systems. Aspirating smoke
detection systems detect smoke by using a fan to draw in air from around a building via a
network of sampling pipes and holes, and passing this air through a highly sensitive
precision detector that analyses it and generates warning signals of potential fire when it
detects smoke particles. They are most useful where early warning is required but are
very expensive to install and maintain.

Dangers of Fire

Smoke inhalation, not burns, is responsible for most deaths in a fire as smoke rapidly
incapacitates people, degrade visibility and diminish the chances of fire victims reaching
otherwise available exits.

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Smoke is dangerous because it contains particles at various stages of burning that can
penetrate the respiratory systems and lodge in the lungs. Toxic gases in smoke such as
carbon monoxide can deplete the blood’s oxygen supply. Fire in the presence of PVC pipes,
vinyl materials and other household items produces hydrogen cyanide and phosgene which
can respectively lead to obstruction of cellular respiration and death by pulmonary edema. It
also contains vapors that can be poisonous when inhaled or absorbed through the skin.

Since fire needs oxygen for combustion, oxygen levels can deplete quickly by combustion
or displacement with other gases generated by the fire. At oxygen levels of twelve
percent, fatigue, headache, nausea and dizziness set in, followed by unconsciousness at
nine percent, and respiratory failure, cardiac arrest and death at six percent.
Heat and thermal radiation are also among the inherent dangers of fire due to their
effect on people and property. One breath of air that is hot enough or containing
superheated gases can burn the respiratory tract and kill.
The effect of fire in the workplace can be devastating. Furniture, discarded packaging,
loose paper, waste bins are ready fuel for fire in the workplace. Other significant risks
also come from overloaded or overheated power extensions, damaged power cords and
computer equipment.
The damage and hazards caused by fire in an industrial setting can extend to surrounding
communities. Regular, scheduled fire risk assessments are critical to the prevention of
fire in offices and industrial settings.
At home where we normally feel safest is actually the most likely place for one to die in a
fire. Heating equipment, Candles and cigarettes, poor electrical connections and
overload pose significant dangers. What about cooking? How many times have we
walked away from the stove, distracted, and forgot that we left food cooking on the
stove? Cooking also poses significant risks because it is something, we do all the time.
This is the strongest case for homes to install fire alarm systems and extinguishers or fire
suppressants.
Benefits of Fire Alarm
The obvious benefits of fire alarm systems include the early warning benefits that can
lead to saved lives and property. Fires can occur anywhere and at any time. Today’s

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systems can increase the evacuation time for the occupants of a building so that they are
able to get away before the fire spreads out of control. Other benefits include:
Automatically alerting emergency fire & medical services so help can quickly get to those
in need. It can also alert other key contacts such as building owners and facility
managers.
With the precision of addressable systems, fire safety personnel know exactly where the
fire is and thus have an easier and less risky job combating the fire and evacuating
people from the building safely.
Employees will feel more comfortable, secure, and happier working in a place that has
an appropriate fire alarm system.
If auto-triggered fire suppressant systems like sprinklers are installed as part of your fire
alarm system that includes suppressing a fire such as through a sprinkler system, it
reduces the risks to life and the exposure of a property and its occupants to the
hazardous prospects of a fire outbreak.
With more hospitals and medical facilities embracing fire alarm systems in Nigeria, the
feeling of safety within these facilities is at a high. Especially as they are integrated with
other advanced system which enhances response time like gas detection and voice
evacuation systems. Early fire detection is critical to the timely evacuation of patients in
a hospital, especially patients who are unable to move themselves.
Fire alarm systems can easily be integrated into a remote monitoring system either
onsite or offsite.
Additionally, fire alarm systems have a low entry cost and also the flexibility of where to
Place the system and its components.
So, it’s often best to install fire alarm components on every floor of a building the fire
alarms can be installed just about anywhere in a commercial building and best of all the
fire safety measure is highly cost effective for smoke and fire protection. But it is never
enough to have a fire alarm system installed. Scheduled, regular t sting of all
components is vital to the effectiveness of these systems if they are to be relied upon for
the protection lives

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