Capricornia Correctional Centre is located 20 kilometres north of Rockhampton, QLD, and accommodates high and low security prisoners. A network of twelve Pertronic F220 fire indicator panels protects staff and inmates of the main complex. An additional F220 protects occupants of the nearby prison farm buildings. Capricornia is the sixth correctional centre in Queensland to utilise a Pertronic fire system.

The system was installed in 2017 by Chubb Fire Safety, replacing an old system that had reached the end of its life. The installation received the full technical support of Pertronic Industries Queensland and was project managed to ensure that Capricornia remained fully protected during the transition. The installation project also had to work within Capricornia’s stringent security requirements. This was the second Queensland correctional centre to transition to a Pertronic system under live operational conditions.

Operating over single mode fibre-optic cable, the high-speed Pertronic Net2 system monitors all fire detection system activity throughout the facility. Information propagates rapidly. When a system event appears on any F220 panel, it immediately appears on remote displays and the “head end” panel. There is no perceptible time-lag.

The head end F220 fire indicator panel (left) and fire fan control panel (right) at Capricornia Correctional Centre, QLD.

Full control of the network is available from the head end F220 fire indicator panel, and from two strategically located network control units. All F220 panels, and the network control units, feature Pertronic’s seven-inch (180 mm) 800 x 480 pixel colour display to unmistakably identify the panel status, device and alarm details in high resolution.

The head end location has a Pertronic master fire fan control panel. This panel provides real time status of all smoke extraction fans across the facility, and over-ride control of each fan.

Custom-built control and indication panels are utilised extensively across the site. In the secure cell-block areas these panels are the principal incident response point for operations staff, enabling manual control of water deluge fire suppression systems and smoke extraction fans. These panels were built around the Pertronic range of control and display components. The design and construction of these panels involved close co-operation between Pertronic Industries and project engineers.

A remote control and display panel at Capricornia, with F220 Full Function Mimic (upper, centre), and deluge and fire fan controls and indicators.

The F220 network automatically triggers the water deluge system according to pre-planned operating requirements. Automatic deluge control utilises the F220’s programmable cause and effect logic.

Buildings at Capricornia are also protected by automatic sprinkler systems. These are monitored by the fire alarm system, which automatically triggers a fire alarm condition if a sprinkler system is activated. In the event of a fire alarm, the Pertronic F220 system automatically activates the appropriate smoke management and occupant warning systems.

Commissioning of the F220 Net2 system was successfully completed in early 2018.

Contact Pertronic for more information