Apollo protects the Adventure Centre, Ratho, home of Scotland's National Rock Climbing Centre
An Apollo-based intelligent fire detection system has
been installed at the Adventure Centre, Ratho, home of Scotland's
National Rock Climbing Centre and the country's National Judo
Academy. The fire detection system was supplied and installed by
Emkay Fire Detection Ltd.
The Adventure Centre lies nine miles west of Edinburgh city
centre and has been developed to provide people from Scotland and
the UK of all ages and physical abilities with a centre for
adventure sports development and practice. It offers indoor and
outdoor activities, from a beginner's course in mountain biking to
professional mountaineering qualifications.
Built on the site of a disused quarry, the Centre's huge
transparent stretch fabric roof has created the largest indoor
climbing arena in the world. It is also the only venue on the
planet to offer indoor climbs on natural rock. An adjacent,
integrated building houses the Judo Academy and a Scuba Diving
School as well as restaurants, bars, a film auditorium, conference
and concert facilities, a fitness studio and spa. The Centre also
offers accommodation for up to 90 people. The fire detection system
needed to provide adequate protection across all these diverse
areas for the Centre's 70 staff and thousands of visitors.
Emkay Fire Detection equipped the Centre with a networked fire
detection system that incorporates around 500 Apollo XP95
intelligent fire detectors. The system is based around two Advanced
control panels and also has a graphic repeater panel. The Gore-tex®
Climbing Arena, which incorporates a 100ft high climbing wall and
the SkyRide aerial assault course, presented a challenge because it
was too high for regular smoke detectors to be effective. Emkay
therefore installed Apollo XP95 beam detectors in this area. Beam
detectors use a transmitter to send infrared light beams across
large open spaces and a receiver to measure the light levels. Smoke
particles obscure the infrared beam, reducing the amount of light
being received and triggering an alarm.
The fire detection system is designed to offer phased evacuation
should the Centre require it in future, but at present an alarm
triggers immediate evacuation of all the indoor facilities. The
fire detection system incorporates a large number of input/output
units that enable actions such as the shutdown of equipment,
isolation of gas supplies and closing of fire curtains to be
dependent upon an alarm. The security system is also linked to the
fire detection system. A fire situation triggers the security
system to automatically release the key-card locks throughout the
accommodation block to aid swift evacuation of the sleeping
quarters. The fire brigade is also contacted automatically in the
event of an alarm.
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