Posted By Chris Pope Caroline Are there any circumstances where the Loss Prevention Council or indeed any other recognised body would maintain that AFD (i guess this means automatic fire detection) will get the emergency services there quicker and put a fire out earlier than sprinklers or other approved automatic extinguishing agent.

Posted By David Kimmins Caroline There are two aspects to the question. 1) Lifesafety. 2) Business continuity. On the first point sprinklers do save lives. The NFPA in the US has no incident on record of two or more people dying in a fire with a properly designed, installed and maintained sprinkler system. (exceptions: explosion). and "Sprinklers reduce the rate of fire deaths by 1/2 to 2/3rds". The design & use of the building, the amount of people in it (& type), the amount of exits and good early warning fire detection are all factors to consider for installing sprinklers for life safety. 2) On business continuity it's quite simple, can your company exist and make money, supply it's customer etc.. make widgets whatever if that building/facility burnt down. There is a 3rd issue which may come into play depending on how many buildings you have, their value etc.. which is the cost of property insurance and business interuption insurance. I hope this was helpful David Kimmins

Posted By AllanH Something to consider, is the building occupied 24/7 if so then a sprinkler system may be enough, if its not occupied 24/7 then you may need to consider linking the sprinkler system to an AFD system, what happens when the sprinkler system is down for maintenance what protection do you have are you still covered for insurance etc, what about burst pipes faulty sprinkler heads. If in any doubt contact your local fire safety dept. Just a thought!!