The entire island-wide infrastructure and community on the Isle of Rum is being protected by a single networked wireless fire detection solution from EMS. The Isle of Rum is situated 15 miles off the North West coast of Scotland in the Inner Hebrides and is one of Scotland's finest and largest National Nature Reserves. It covers approximately 64 square miles, has 19 separate buildings and a population of about 30 people, with thousands of tourists visiting the island each year.

The system consists of 6 wireless networked control panels from the EMS 5000 FirePoint range, together with 4 wireless transponders and over 300 wireless devices, including fire sensors, call points and sounders. Sophisticated cause and effect programming in the control panels ensures safe and phased evacuation across the community depending on the type and location of the initial fire alarm. Senior managers are also issued with pagers that alert them instantly to any fire alarms, allowing them to quickly react to the situation day or night. The complete system was installed and commissioned in less than one week by Initial Fire & Security. This was achieved in part by the close collaboration between EMS, Initial and Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), the owners of the island.

The system protects all the island’s buildings which are concentrated in the North East of the island, an area of over a mile long - an exceptional distance to be protected by a single fire protection solution. As well as Kinloch Castle, an historic building of immense importance to the island, fire protection is provided for the community hall, library, school, power station, boat house, estates office and all the local residences which are protected to an L1 standard. Both the estates office and castle office have master panels and act as monitoring stations for the entire system. The system can also be monitored from the mainland via a modem to allow remote diagnosis in the event of a fault or problem. The complete fire protection solution was installed without the need for cabling between any of the panels or devices, thereby significantly reducing the environmental impact of the project compared to an equivalent wired system.

It was vitally important to SNH that any system installed provided the very best fire protection for the island’s inhabitants and its historic, public and private buildings. However, it was also of paramount importance that the protection installed would in no way disturb the island’s delicate ecological balance or the infrastructure of its services. The Isle of Rum is internationally renowned as a major conservation area, maintaining a unique combination of plant, animal and geological heritage.

Not only did the EMS wireless solution meet all these important environmental and operational requirements but it was also the most economical solution. A cost analysis by SNH found that the best  wireless system was 160% more expensive, even without the cost of any reinstatement works.

This project demonstrates the flexibility of wireless protection systems where long distances are involved. EMS wireless solutions have been installed in many site-wide applications where wired systems would have been prohibitively expensive. The wide range of EMS wireless solutions includes analogue fire detection, voice evacuation, intruder security and personal protection, all of which can be installed without the need for cable.

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