Quake shakes up thinking
East Coast tremblor may create seismic-certified product demand

WESTBURY, N.Y.—Gamewell-FCI by Honeywell announced in September its fire alarm and emergency communications systems earned International Building Code seismic certification.

The announcement, shortly after a 5.8 magnitude earthquake struck the East Coast on Aug. 23, was very timely, according to Alan Glassman, VP of Classic Systems, a Gamewell-FCI engineered systems distributor here.

“If you would have asked me a year ago about the importance of seismic listings I would have laughed,” Glassman told Security Systems News. “I’m singing a different tune now.”

He believes the earthquake will be a wake-up call to others, including engineers and specifiers. He said seismic requirements “have never been in their specs before, but I can tell you I totally expect to see it coming forward.”

His company, he said, also plans to be proactive.

“We’re going to try and make it a specifiable item when we meet with engineers and specifiers,” he said. “We’re going to kind of push it and make sure that they understand that Gamewell-FCI’s panels do have that listing now.”

Fourteen-year-old Classic is a 24-employee company serving metro New York and New Jersey.

Among Classic’s customers is New York City’s first casino. The 1-million-square-foot Resorts World—actually a racino at the Aqueduct horseracing track in Queens—is slated to open this fall. “It’s a huge fire alarm project,” said Glassman. “It’s going to be a Gamewell-FCI-E3 multinode system with full voice.”

By Tess Nacelewicz - Security System News