Smoke & Fire Curtain Applications in Airports are a Necessity
Airport fires pose a serious threat to safety in airport concourses. Airport fires have occurred at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, Manchester Airport, and Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport where significant loss of life occurred.
The FAA considers airport fires significant enough that they require special fire brigades to be deployed at airports of a certain size and flight frequency.
Air Traffic Control Centers must also be protected during these events to prevent catastrophe in the air. U.S. Smoke & Fire effectively keeps air traffic control online by:
- Providing the Control Tower with a fire and smoke safe haven for up to 2 hours. Fire and smoke curtains can be deployed to effectively create walls, forming a safe room, and buying critical time for controllers.
- Curtains can be both automatically and manually deployed.
- These systems integrate with existing fire alarm systems.
- Curtain technology provides for easy exit, in that they are egress safe through the use of an exit button. Further, the curtain materials are light-weight and hand liftable.
- Concourses
In large open areas smoke curtains and a smoke extraction system are optimized when used in conjunction with the smoke curtains. This combination of curtain technology enables three significant safety features:
- Smoke is routed away from people and merchandise to the extraction system.
- The extraction system removes the smoke and toxins from the facility.
- The smoke curtain provides an effective block for smoke and fire. People have time to leave, and fire personnel are able to easily enter.
Concourses are also often served by escalators and trams. Deploying curtains along escalators and tram routes provides a safe path for egress, as well as ingress for emergency personnel. Further, in the event that the main power or back-up generator fails, the smoke curtain will operate independently and deploy as directed by the alarm system. Should the alarm panel be compromised, the fail-safe design will still deploy the curtains. Deployable Draft Curtains can also be utilized in lieu of the 18" glass. This allows for cleaner site lines and an invisible solution.
