Six months ago, Quality Hotel Waterfront in Sweden implemented Early Action, an AI-based service capable of preventing fires. According to Mathias Wahlberg, the hotel’s technical manager, Early Action has already successfully averted potential fires and avoided the costs associated with emergency fire brigade interventions.
The importance of fire safety in the hotel industry can’t be overstated. Ensuring the safety of guests is a fundamental requirement for all hotel operators.
Aside from the potential threat to the safety of hotel guests and employees, fires can cause extensive damage that risks the brand’s integrity and can even damage the hotel’s structure. The harm to the hotel’s reputation might be even more remarkable and take longer to repair.
Implementing a reliable, integrated fire protection system can assure hotel operators that guests and staff are safe and well protected. Early detection can help prevent the disruptive effects of false alarms, such as costly use of the fire brigade, and evacuation of full-scale evacuations wrongly undertaken.
In a new era of digital fire safety, technologies have emerged in the market that can help existing solutions. Early Action is one example of that. It is an AI-based software service developed by Consilium Safety that can be integrated with fire alarm systems.
The system can continuously collect the status of all detectors and, from the app installed on a mobile phone, warn responsible persons who manage the fire alarm system about incidents that risks leading to a fire.
In the event of a fire, time is the most crucial factor. If the fire department can count in a few minutes, it can make all the difference.
– Early Action’s immediate value is getting a quick indication when something is about to happen. Instead of being surprised by a fire alarm, the customer receives a warning, a fire prediction. This allows the user to solve the cause before an actual fire alarm is activated, with the risk of high costs and inconvenience as a result”, says Thobias Ernfridsson, Chief Technical Officer at Consilium Safety Group.
The number of Early Action users in different businesses and facilities throughout Sweden has increased rapidly in the past year. One is Quality Hotel Waterfront, suited at the river Göta Älv in Sweden’s second biggest city Gothenburg.
Mathias Wahlberg works as a technical manager at Quality Hotel Waterfront. Mathias demonstrates the application, shows how user friendly it is, and says it requires no significant test efforts.
– When I received the ‘Early Action’ app, I just installed it and followed the instructions on how to use the service, says Mathias.
So far, he is pleasantly surprised by how Early Action operates.
– We have been using Early Action for the past six months and have received numerous alarms, such as guests smoking in the rooms, which we have been able to identify faster than before. I received a notice on my phone. It warned of an ongoing smoke development in one of the hotel rooms. I replied directly in the app that I was looking into the matter and went to the room.
Early Action can continuously read the collected data from all the facility’s sensors and precisely analyze what is happening in the system.
In this case, regarding smoke levels, it can automatically alert the person or persons who have the app. Early warnings and incident signals in case of heat or when smoke values behave abnormally.
– We had another incident when the power center got overheated; it was a loose contact we discovered before a fire started. The consequences in the power center could have been severe, says Mathias Wahlberg.
Quality Hotel Waterfront has 151 rooms, suites, conference rooms, banquet facilities, a restaurant, a bar, and a wellness area with a gym, jacuzzi, steam bath, and sauna. According to Mathias Wahlberg, Early Action is an invaluable tool for improving fire safety at their hotel.
– It is a significant milestone for our fire safety work. The good thing is that I receive the message directly on my phone. I don’t need to rush back to the station. Most of the time, I’m out and about at the hotel, so I can go straight to the incident scene as soon as it occurs. We are confident that Early Action will help us avoid future fires, says Mathias Wahlberg.
Since the implementation of Early Action, the number of users that use the application at Quality Hotel Waterfront has increased steadily.
– We have rolled it out to our staff, such as receptionists and housekeepers. Outsourcing it to more people in the organization is a great advantage. We can get to the incident faster. Now it is always staffed in case someone is out from work; it is also more efficient if everyone can contribute to covering our large areas, says Mathias Wahlberg.
The Swedish Civil Protection agency (MSB) statistics show that around 95-96% of all automatic fire alarms in Sweden are unwanted. According to Mathias Wahlberg, Early Action has been valuable in that sense, too, since Quality Hotel Waterfront reduced the number of unwanted alarms and calls.
– We don’t need to evacuate the entire hotel when we receive a message from Early Action. It only applies to the staff members who connect to the app. It also makes it easier for the fire brigade to avoid unnecessary calls, and we avoid many unnecessary costs, but that is a secondary concern. Our primary focus is ensuring the safety of our guests and staff members.
Is Early Action resource intensive?
– No, not at all. Instead, it facilitates our work. We are talking about human life here, and with 151 rooms, many guests are here for the first time and may not know where to go. Even though the information is highlighted in each room, I know, based on experience, that guests may not notice it, says Mathias Wahlberg.
For further information, please contact:
Malin Cardemar, CMCO, Consilium Safety Group
Mail: malin.cardemar@consiliumsafety.com
Telephone: +46 735 95 32 51
