Heritage Building Fire Alarm Systems: Protection Without Compromise

The unique challenges of fire safety in historic buildings

Preserving historic fabric: Minimising intrusion

Many modern fire safety solutions use a lot of wiring, bulky detection devices, and sprinkler systems with visible pipework. This goes against the aesthetic preservation of heritage sites with installation potentially damaging historical fabrics that have been preserved for decades. There is no way that the owner of a heritage site would agree to a system that could cause damage to original features such as carved wood or painted ceilings.

Wireless fire detection: The ideal non-intrusive solution

Wireless fire alarm systems for listed buildings circumvent these potential issues by removing the need for wires and providing much more discrete fire safety systems. By using fire systems that rely on specialist approaches such as air sampling and fire suppression via clean agents, it is possible to have a fully fire compliant heritage site that doesn’t compromise the authenticity of property in any way.

Navigating complex fire safety compliance and legislation

Listed building fire safety compliance is made more difficult due to several factors that are unique to heritage properties. In the event of a fire, the evacuation routes through a heritage site can be confusing with inadequate capacity. This is because old staircases and hallways can be narrow and winding which can lead to bottlenecks. There is also an issue with layouts often being across multiple floors which can increase evacuation times too.

Due to some heritage sites being in a difficult to reach location or of a difficult height to deal with, there can be a delay in how quickly the fire service can access all parts of a heritage property. This can lead to extensive damage in the event of a fire, due to slow response times.

Older properties do not have modern accessibility options either. Steep stairs and uneven floors can lead to evacuation being more difficult for anyone with mobility issues, which makes the provision of a Personal Emergency Evacuation Plan (PEEP) difficult.

Fact: With 38,144 building fires recorded in the year ending December 2024, authorities highlight that even a small number of incidents in listed or heritage properties can result in irreversible cultural loss, justifying enhanced fire‑protection investment compared with standard commercial buildings.

Source: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/fire-and-rescue-incident-statistics-year-ending-december-2024

Addressing false alarms and signal interference

With the majority of heritage sites making the majority of their income from visitors any false alarm that occurs can prove to be very costly due to unnecessary downtime. If a false alarm results in a full evacuation of a property, there may be a need to turn new visitors away and provide refunds to visitors whose visit was interrupted. This can result in a significant loss in revenue and lead to staff members developing ‘alert fatigue’.

The issue of false alarms can be more common in older properties too. This is because they often accumulate dust and other air particles that can interfere with traditional smoke detection systems. More false alarms means more lost revenue and an increase in ‘alert fatigue’ among staff which can lead to a genuine fire being taken less seriously, resulting in slower evacuations and an increased chance of fatal incidents.

Drax Technology: Intelligence built for preservation

At Drax Technology, we don’t believe in waiting for a fire risk to occur and then dealing with it once it has already had the opportunity to cause irreversible damage. Our intelligent solution focuses on protecting heritage hospitality sites by predicting potential fire risks and acting proactively to avoid them entirely.

Central critical alarm management and rapid response

With our platform you can manage all of your fire safety assets in one place in real-time. This enables for a rapid response to alerts that can be used to catch an issue before it can progress to become a genuine fire risk.

Seamless integration with all fire panel manufacturers

Our solution is able to connect multiple fire safety assets together seamlessly, and manage them via a centralised dashboard, regardless of manufacturer. It is compatible with over 50 fire alarm panel brands.

Real-time data for faster emergency response

Real-time data allows you to catch potential fire risks early for a faster emergency response. This can help to quell a fire at the pre-ignition stage. Before it is able to cause any lasting damage.

Proactive maintenance and risk anticipation

By integrating our intelligent software into your heritage building fire alarm systems, you can utilise predictive modeling to anticipate risk and provide proactive, remedial maintenance.

Identifying faults before they become a threat

Our platform assigns a RAG (red, amber, green) status to each fire safety asset within your portfolio. This provides an easy to understand overview of which assets have minor faults and require attention. Enabling you to plan for remedial maintenance before they can become a genuine fire threat.

Continuous, automated compliance with British Standards

A full audit trail is recorded locally and updated automatically for every fire safety asset across your sites. Our intelligent system also routinely checks for non-compliance, flags it, and provides actionable guidance on how to proceed.

Who We Work With

Solutions engineered for historic and listed buildings

Our intelligent solution provides effective critical alarm management for heritage sites. It enables non-intrusive fire alarm installation, and supports a proactive approach to fire detection in historic buildings.

Wireless fire alarm solutions for minimal visual and structural impact By removing the need for extensive wiring, wireless fire alarm systems for listed buildings minimise the visual impact within a heritage site. They also reduce the amount of structural impact from installation which helps to keep the property safer overall. Wireless solutions are a strong fire safety choice that help with the aesthetic preservation of heritage sites.
Discreet design and colour-matching for sensitive interiors Our alarm solutions are compact and discreet. Colour matching options are available, enabling you to have a fire safety system that blends in with each room’s unique interior.

Aspirating smoke detection (ASD) for high ceilings and large voids Traditional smoke detection systems are not very effective in large rooms with high ceilings. This is because smoke from a fire needs to rise high enough to be detected, at which point a smoke alarm could be detecting a fully established fire. To avoid this issue, aspirating smoke detectors draw air through a network of pipes to a central detection unit. This enables them to detect smoke extremely early, before the smoke particles are even visible.
Incident forensics and audit trails for regulator confidence Every fire safety asset within a portfolio provides dedicated incident forensics and audit trails which are automatically recorded by the central software. This enables you to provide highly accurate and up to date documentation to regulators. Everything is easily accessible via the compliance hub.

Our system is compatible with over 50 fire alarm manufacturers

Make safety autonomous, continuous, and built to last

Don’t rely on inefficient manual fire safety procedures that are very time-consuming and allow for human error. With our fully integrated intelligent solution, you can automate the majority of your fire safety procedures, and continuously monitor all fire safety devices from a single user-friendly dashboard. It is effective across multiple industry sectors.

Why Drax is the smarter choice for heritage protection

Our integrated platform is the smarter choice for listed building fire safety compliance because it allows for discreet fire safety measures to be put in place that can be monitored in real-time 24/7 from any location. You can use a smart phone or any web enabled device to manage your fire safety systems on the go, and detect small faults early, before they can escalate into full fire safety risks.

Don’t focus on dealing with fire risks after they have been detected, take a proactive approach that enables you to run remedial maintenance early and avoid fire risks altogether.

Speak to our Heritage team

Heritage building fire alarm system FAQ's

What are the main fire alarm system options for a listed building?

The main fire alarm system options for a listed building are non-intrusive systems such as wireless fire alarm systems which reduce the amount of cabling required, early detection systems such as aspirating smoke detectors and air sampling (VESDA) systems, and clean agent suppression systems that remove the risk of water damage.

Can a wireless fire alarm system be installed in a Grade I or Grade II listed building?

Yes, wireless fire alarm systems are ideal for use in listed buildings as they are less intrusive, and provide early fire risk detection.

What is 'Critical Alarm Management' and why is it important for heritage sites?

Critical alarm management is the act of centralising the status of all fire safety assets across a site or sites into one integrated platform. This is important for heritage sites as they often have very complex fire safety compliance needs which are very difficult to track and report on through siloed data and on site checks.

How does Drax Technology help with compliance reporting for a heritage building?

Drax Technology helps with compliance reporting for heritage buildings by automatically recording and updating audit trails for all fire safety assets across the site, providing a compliance hub for easy access to documentation for regulators, and recording unique in-depth incident reports for every fire safety asset in the portfolio.

Is Drax Technology compatible with my existing fire alarm panel?

Yes, our intelligent solution is compatible with over 50 fire alarm panel manufacturers. It is capable of interconnecting numerous fire safety assets from numerous fire alarm brands into a centralised solution seamlessly.