EVERY fire prevention company has a vision of being able to confidently declare that a site it has protected will never experience a fire.
German fire engineering company Wagner says it has now made this possible with its innovative fire prevention system – OxyReduct. The system is based on a many years of experience in extinguishing fire with nitrogen.
“The basic principle is as simple as it is brilliant – if combustion is impossible, the risk of fire is eliminated,” says Thomas Schaedlich, Wagner’s general manager for the Middle East
He is convinced that with the OxyReduct fire prevention system, a solution is available which is based not on extinguishing fire but on making it impossible for a fire to start, thanks to a controlled reduction in the oxygen level in the risk area.
“For the first time in the history of fire prevention, action replaces reaction. An open fire cannot occur when using OxyReduct in a closed room. This is achieved by introducing a regulated supply of nitrogen into the risk area, which reduces the oxygen level. However, these areas now protected against fire still remain accessible,” he says.
"People can inhabit the area as conditions are similar to what one experiences at a height of 2,700 m, where due to low pressure one gets about 15 per cent oxygen to breathe. So there are no issues at all for a medically fit person to breathe normally," he adds.
OxyReduct guarantees maximum fire prevention where the customer’s main objective is to maintain permanent operation of its technical installations. Typical examples of such installations are telecommunications and EDP facilities and fully-automated manufacturing plants. Irreplaceable assets in data or art archives can also be protected against fire.
The range of application for the system encompasses everything from small IT rooms to archives and museums, and huge storage areas such as cold rooms and high-bay warehouses.
Since its inception in 1976 to offer effective fire prevention concepts, Wagner has realised that customer requirements could only be met with individual, complete solutions.
“Soon we developed our own fire prevention concepts, creating unique solutions for difficult and complex fire prevention applications by introducing innovative solutions into an otherwise conventional market,” says Schaedlich.
Pursuing this objective, the company today plays a leading role in the fire prevention market. From fire engineering consultation, application specific research, installation to after-sales service, the company says it can offers the most innovative solutions in the field of fire prevention worldwide.
Wagner is certified to ISO 9001 and ISO 9002 by the VdS (German Regulatory Body for Fire and Security) and LPCB (British Regulatory Body for Fire and Safety).
As design engineering consultants, the company has served many of the world's leading corporations from telecommunication providers such as WorldCom and KPNQuest to chemical manufacturers (Wacker Industries) to the petroleum industry (BP) to name a few.
In many countries, Wagner subsidiaries or partners provide turnkey solutions that extend from complete system design, to installation and maintenance. In others, they provide design, specification, project management and training.
Wagner’s Middle East office was established in 1999 in Dubai.
“As fire safety consultants, our objective is to provide technically sound and cost effective fire safety solutions in line with the relevant national and international codes and standards,” says Schaedlich.
Affiliated to organisations such as the NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) SFPE (Society of Fire Protection Engineers) and IFPO (Institute of Fire Protection Officers), the objective of the UAE office is to promote fire engineering as a dedicated profession, and to build a new platform for the Wagner Corporation in the Middle East region.
“This has been accomplished so far by contributions to fire engineering design and fire response testing on projects throughout the Dubai Police infrastructure, some UAE military projects and many commercial and industrial clients which include Enoc and Dugas in Dubai, the Adia headquarters in Abu Dhabi, the National Fodder production plant in Abu Dhabi, the server farms at Dubai Internet City, cold storage facilities in Egypt and Kuwait, museums and houses of cultural interest as well as energy supply and control facilities in Iran. Consultations have also been conducted for the Kuwait Oil Company (JOC Wafra),” he says.
The company has already established a sound reputation in the UAE. The formal recognition by the Ministry of Interior and Civil Defence as a licensed “House of Expertise” underlines this reputation, says Schaedlich.