Fire: Extinguished!

Imagine a place where fires cannot exist. Not underwater, but rather your office or warehouse. Should anything ignite, it would immediately extinguish itself. Impossible you say? FirePASS and ETiC believe they have discovered a revolutionary solution, and are quickly labelling fire as an outdated, unnecessary form of risk. If you want it to be.

The HAV FirePass equipment

The official Dubai product launch came last month, and was well received amongst the anticipatory crowd. Within a glass enclosure, the audience witnessed candles being lit and instantaneously flickering out, as if doused with water. But there was no water, nor fire extinguishers, nor wind. So what was it?

FirePASS’s Hypoxic Air Ventilation system (HAV) is the revolutionary technology which produces ordinary, breathable air and does not allow any normal material to burn.

“With FirePASS we’ve created an oxygen deficit,” says David Vincent, Managing Director of FirePASS Ltd.

Discovered and patented by FirePASS and ETiC, Hypoxic Air Ventilation (HAV) will provide safe breathable air as well as total fire prevention.

“Fire protection has always been challenging. Fires usually do irreparable damage before they are extinguished – if they are extinguished – and often the fire fighting equipment used causes even worse secondary damage. Our system is preventative; it doesn’t allow the fire to start therefore no damage is done and there is no interruption to business,” said Vincent.

“By reducing oxygen levels by approximately 5 per cent, we get a sustaining environment where fire cannot exist. We take out the same amount of oxygen as if you were on a commercial flight,” says Vincent.

So how does it work? “The HAV generators utilise a building’s existing air conditioning system – avoiding invasive installations and usually allowing the area to continue its operation even while being installed. Once operational, the fire safety of the area is assured – pipes and nozzles in the protected areas are generally not required removing the need for sensors and activation systems,” says Vincent.

Following the fires that raged through more than 80 warehouses in Al Quoz in February, such preventative measures are gaining interest throughout the region. The warehouse explosion and subsequent fire, stretched across more than one kilometre, and was thought to be one of the largest in the history of Dubai, causing losses estimated at US$ 164 million. Vincent believes such disasters could easily be contained, if not prevented.

Having since partnered up with Emirates Technical Innovation Center (ETiC), both remain confident that many GCC-based industries will benefit from the HAV system as such advancements are rapidly gaining regional interest.

“We were extremely proud to work with ETiC. They are a young and very talented company that specialises in bringing the benefits of technology to parts of the Middle East business community,” Vincent says.

Khalifa Alqama, Chairman of ETiC, already senses who will be attracted to the newfound technology. Those who stand the most to lose, should a fire ever breakout. “It’s a vital system used where the stored material is invaluable like museums or data centers or where safety is paramount, such as power stations or petrochemical risk areas,”

With roughly 90 per cent of insurance premiums used to cover losses due to fire, implementation should reduce rates in time as well.

Though the FirePASS system is still fairly new to the global market, Alqama doesn’t hesitate to pledge ETiC’s full backing.

“At ETiC we ensure the effectiveness of the products we support. This is why we continuously monitor and ensure that all our products are of the highest quality,” he says.

Already being implemented throughout Europe, Vincent expects FirePASS to eventually become the standard in the GCC region for fire prevention. After all, why risk losing everything to something that could easily be prevented?

“I’m personally very pleased that we’re now here in Dubai. Fires can now be a thing of the past. It’s a matter of choice,” says Vincent.