Fire was prevented at a Scottish Borders company by a suppression system which put it out automatically when smoke detectors were activated.

The manager of the call centre in question thanked installers Automatic Protection Limited (APL), wondering "who knows what the damage would have been" otherwise.

The FM200 fire suppression system discharged into the company's main communication room and APL said that without it, the fire could have been "disastrous".

After a call-out from the manager, an engineer found that the system was working, except that the FM200 gas had discharged.


At the same time an uninterruptable power supply (UPS) engineer attended the site and discovered that capacitors in the UPS had exploded causing extreme heat to be generated and melt the metal racking holding the capacitors.

The build-up of smoke triggered the detectors and discharged the FM200 extinguishant into the Comms Room, extinguishing the fire and alerting the fire brigade before any damage to the protected area was caused.

The call centre manager said: "Who knows what the damage would have been had we not had the FM200 system installed to kill the fire before it got started. This really demonstrates the value of the system."

APL are specialists in the niche market of design, installation, commissioning and maintenance including of gaseous suppression systems.

For information on how to protect your business please contact Stuart Harrison of on 01899 220330 or visit www.autoproltd.co.uk.

(NE)