Don’t believe everything you see on television. Television shows and movies often depict fires in a room of a building, and every sprinkler in the building begins to discharge water at the same time. This is not how sprinklers work. Each sprinkler head is individually activated and will trigger at a specific temperature. The heat from the fire will either shatter a bulb or melt a soldered connection, which activates the head. Most fires are controlled or extinguished by one or two sprinkler heads. In addition to extinguishing the fire, sprinkler systems trigger an alarm to alert the occupants and/or [...]

An arc is defined by the NFPA as, “A high temperature luminous electric discharge across a gap”. Arcing is a potentially dangerous situation. High temperatures are created, which can result in the ignition of a fire. There has been much research conducted regarding this issue over the past few years. A device called an Arc Fault Circuit Interrupter (AFCI) was developed to protect against this hazard. As of 2002, the Electrical Code requires that AFCIs must be used when construction of a new bedroom is undertaken. The 23rd Edition of the Ontario Electrical Safety Code was issued in 2002. Sentence [...]