Oaklawn Racing & Gaming
Hot Springs, Arkansas

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There’s No Gamble When it Comes to Life Safety
Racetracks and casinos have something in common: They both serve patrons who enjoy playing the odds and putting their money on the line. But no one wants to gamble when it comes to fire safety. That’s why Oaklawn Racing and Gaming in Hot Springs, Arkansas, has revamped its fire system to ensure that it is doing all it can to protect guests, staff, and property in case of a fire or emergency.

Oaklawn is more than a hundred years old, and it has a longtime reputation for excellence in racing. It has hosted such prestigious races as the Arkansas Derby, and well-known horses like Smarty Jones and Zenyatta have taken their chances on the Oaklawn track.

About ten years ago, Oaklawn joined the ranks of racetracks installing gaming machines, creating a combination entertainment venue called a “racino.” The machines were such a success that a few years ago, the track embarked on a multimillion dollar expansion to update the current gaming area and add another 53,000-square-foot building to the facility. The addition includes various gaming machines, poker tables, and a restaurant.

Management saw the project as an opportunity to upgrade the racetrack’s old fire system and to modernize protocols both in the new building and renovated areas. At the same time, alarms in the non-renovated areas could be connected to the new fire monitoring equipment.

The previous system, which was decades old, consisted of pull stations and smoke and duct detectors (which detect smoke in the air ducts), monitored by a third-party. When an alarm went off, there was no way for in-house personnel to immediately assess the validity of the alert—cameras weren’t tied in—nor were ventilation systems automatically set to cut off oxygen and contain any smoke.

This wasn’t the most effective way to manage alarms, says Jim Slade, Oaklawn’s director of surveillance. Additionally, the old system did not meet the fire and building codes for the new building, says Slade. Some of the additions necessary for compliance included the integration of the fire system with the air-handling and access control systems.

The Selection Process
Initially, Oaklawn relied on the architecture firm that was designing the new building and renovation to plan the fire alarm system as well. Then, Slade says the electrical contractor Oaklawn was working with recommended Advanced Cabling Systems to refine the design and implement the fire system. Advanced Cabling joined the project in March 2008.

The E3 Series® from Gamewell FCI, a division of Honeywell, was chosen to fulfill the objectives of the plan. The fire alarm/mass notification combination system consists of smoke detectors, heat detectors, duct detectors, a voice evacuation system, local operator consoles, and the ability to do emergency announcements via microphone or automatic announcements, according to Ron Hicks, senior vice president of Advanced Cabling.

The system includes a local operator console, which has a graphic annunciator connected to the fire system. The graphic annunciator is used to pinpoint exactly where a fire alarm is going off. It also includes a mass notification system.

Design
The prior fire system was a standalone system. A major design feature of the new E3 Series system is that it is integrated with Oaklawn’s other building systems, including access control and air-handling. That means that the magnetic door locks can be programmed to unlock in the event of a fire alarm, for example, to let patrons out and fire personnel in.

Integration of the air-handling system means the air conditioning system shuts down the air conditioners when smoke is detected. That ensures that the fire will not be fed by oxygen nor will the ventilation system spread smoke throughout the building.

The E3 Series system uses relay logic to accomplish those interactions, according to Michael Kennedy, president of Advanced Cabling. “It’s programming that says, ‘if this happens, make sure this happens.’ So it’s all written in the programming of the fire alarm system,” explains Kennedy.

The system is not directly tied into the surveillance system but the graphic annunciator helps operators pinpoint exactly where the alarm is. They can then pull up the corresponding cameras and see what’s going on or send people to help out in the area. Slade says he has designed databases that allow staff to match up the alarm codes with the cameras that are closest. The system includes 350 cameras in the new area and about 125 more in the area with the older fire system, says Hicks.

Installation
The new E3 Series fire system uses fiber-optic wire, which relies on optic connections, according to the installers. In the past, there would be a multitude of copper wire going to each fire alarm panel. However, the new system allows the information to be passed digitally via fiber, so only one fiber wire is needed and the fire alarm panels are redundant in case one goes down during a fire.

“The ease of installation allows you to save time, to save money, and to be able to pass that savings onto the owner,” says Hicks. He adds that the money savings come in “installation charges. If you’re pulling one hundred [copper] wires, you’ve got a tremendous amount of labor that it takes to pull those wires. If you’re pulling one fiber between all those panels, then you have the number of hours reduced exponentially, so…I don’t have five hundred hours in a job pulling wire, I now have forty hours. And so the amount of money that you save in labor alone and wire can be passed on to the customer, allowing for a better system and a lower cost.”

In the areas where the old hard-wired fire alarm system is still being used, such as the grandstand, Hicks says that Gamewell-FCI multiple input modules have been used to tie the alarms to the new system. The old wires have been connected to the modules, which transfer the information digitally to the surveillance monitoring room.

Mass Notification
One of the major reasons that Oaklawn chose this technology is its mass notification capability. Slade wanted a system where the message could be tailored to the specific incident and where words, rather than just a warning siren, could convey the importance of the message.

“It’s kind of like, you walk through a parking lot, you hear a car alarm going off, you don’t even turn and look at it anymore. Well, the thing is that if somebody came on the intercom or a reported message says ‘this is an actual threat, please leave the building immediately,’ they will do it,” says Slade.

The annunciator can be used to make live messages or to send out prerecorded messages. That’s a huge improvement over a simple siren that can only signal people to leave. In that case, notes Slade, you end up “evacuating when you don’t need to, or you will not be evacuating when you actually should.”

Mass notification is extremely important, agrees Hicks. He adds that the National Fire Protection Association devotes a section of its requirements to mass notification (which it refers to as emergency communications systems).

Oaklawn has taken strides to ensure the safety of its patrons and employees by updating its fire alarm system, integrating it with other aspects of the facility, and taking over the operations on its own. Slade is already satisfied with the improvements on the system. That the facility has improved the odds of fire safety well into the future is now a safe bet.

© 2010 ASIS International, 1625 Prince Street, Alexandria, VA 22314. Reprinted with permission from the May 2010 issue of Security Management Magazine.