Smarter safety with AI insights, with Siemens

Robert Yates, Head of Building Products Fire Safety UK at Siemens, discusses how digitalisation is transforming fire safety through cloud connectivity, remote monitoring, and predictive maintenance 

Do you see the role of the cloud as fundamental in the part that AI has to play in contributing to advances in fire safety? 

Without a doubt. Intelligent sensors have been around for some time now but over the last few years IOT-enabled fire safety solutions have taken significant strides forward. The speed at which fire protection is changing is greater than ever. While the road to digital transformation started some time ago, the advent of cloud connectivity has proved to be a significant driver for technological development. With it, the digitalisation of fire safety has brought a number of benefits across the lifecycle of a building.  

It has made the process more traceable, with BIM (Building Information Modelling) providing the means to achieve the golden thread of information, with service and occupant response in the event of an incident able to be tracked and, importantly, learned from.  

Robert Yates

It has improved efficiencies, reducing costs and errors, perhaps most notably by helping to facilitate processes, often reducing travel time and costs and making fault finding easier. Digital fire service solutions are, for example, replacing costly and time-consuming on-site visits. Previously, checks and maintenance work required a service provider to visit a customer’s site in person.

Now, with the advent of remote services made possible through digitalisation, monitoring and intervention can be undertaken off-site, with service providers able to interrogate and even alter systems remotely. This not only reduces costs but also enhances flexibility via the capability for remote access 24/7. Less travelling also reduces CO2 emissions, helping with sustainability. 

Digitalisation has also made significant advances in terms of ease of use of fire safety systems. User interfaces are becoming ever more graphics-based, with the swipe, click, drag and drop approach so familiar from our mobile phones. 

‘Interoperability’ is a phrase that has been around now for some time in terms of building management systems and it is gathering momentum as digitalisation increases. This is the potential to connect multiple systems which can then compliment each other. An example would be a CCTV camera able to zoom in on a fire location or record the operation of a call point, while a lift can report return status or louvres can be automatically activated in the event of an alarm activation to aid smoke ventilation. 

What about apps? Are they becoming more important and, if so, how are you building them into the Siemens fire safety offering? 

Apps are certainly becoming more prevalent, offering a user-friendly option as we become increasingly familiar with our smart phones. A good example is the Siemens Building X Fire Apps which consist of the Fire Manager on PC and a cloud suite of mobile apps for iOS and Android. The Fire Manager brings safety management to one platform and shows all fire safety sites in real-time in one view.

There is no need to drive to the location.

Robert Yates

The responsible person can see the status of the buildings and get more details by clicking on the site of interest. Everything relates to an encrypted connection, ensuring the safety of the data.  

The development goes back to our idea of digitalising the tasks of service providers, facility managers, and fire safety managers, thus making them more efficient and more secure. Furthermore, digitalising fire safety management brings more security for properties and people. First responders can be connected to the system, and mobile push notifications can also remotely provide alarms to service providers wherever they are.  

Fire Manager is used for remote programming, remote 24/7 monitoring of all sites, predictive maintenance, user-friendly and comprehensive event history, and detailed information on individual devices.

The Fire Connect mobile app is for use on the go and enables an overview of the site’s status and live incidents. It allows access to event history, browsing of past incidents, and setting native mobile push notifications. Finally, the engineer can conduct detector tests by getting the test results directly from the Fire Connect app.  

In your previous answer you mentioned predictive maintenance. Is this an area in which digitalisation can help? 

Definitely. One of the most important features of the adoption of digitalised fire safety systems is the move from a reactive mode of protection to a proactive and anticipatory one. Potential failures can be predicted and maintenance checks anticipated, all while increasing performance and reducing total cost of ownership.

Data can be analysed down to the contamination level, properly planning maintenance needs, addressing issues before they escalate, and thus reducing emergency repair costs.

Robert Yates

Remote troubleshooting enables technicians to diagnose problems remotely, minimising downtime. Fewer service calls mean cost savings for all parties.  

Not only are we moving from reactive to predictive maintenance: above all, we are migrating from prescriptive to performance-based fire safety. This digital revolution ensures the optimum safety of people, assets and investments in a way that far exceeds legal compliance.

The digital era has helped significantly in this shift from a generic, prescriptive approach which seeks simply to satisfy building and fire codes to a much more performance-based model. Risks and potential fire scenarios are identified to develop a tailor-made solution rather than one which seeks to adopt a generic ‘checklist’ approach.  

What are the most important elements in achieving successful digitalisation of fire safety systems? 

The three fundamental elements are connectivity, information and automation. 

Taking connectivity first, this is the capability to connect a fire detection system to servers, either on site, as part of a wider network or in the cloud. Portals are now available which connect with the cloud, while, as already mentioned, mobile apps are also being developed to ensure a smoother commissioning and configuration of systems, as well as providing the opportunity to access information on fire safety sites irrespective of a person’s location.

Importantly, these connections to sites are secure through cloud gateways, providing a range of details regarding the status of the system and replicating the information available from the on-site safety panel. 

In terms of information, its availability and accessibility are increasing significantly through digitalisation. Information derived through BIM not only allows the details of the original design to be retained but also enables changes to be tracked and controlled throughout the life of the building as it evolves.

It has also led to the introduction of the ‘building twin’, a digital, multi-dimensional machine-readable copy of a physical building, which helps to simulate the impact of any changes.

Robert Yates

Using BIM to combine models with real-life data is enabling more informed decision making, assessing how different factors are likely to impact outcomes. 

Finally, there is automation. Through using information intelligently, efficiencies in design can be realised. Test plans can be created and automatically performed and reported, with faults identified automatically which can then be investigated and, if required, repaired.  

So what are the challenges in terms of AI continuing to develop in its contribution to fire safety? 

One of the issues is undoubtedly the sheer magnitude of data that is now available and finding ways to ensure that this is meaningful and useful rather than simply being data for data’s sake. We are already in the world of so called ‘Big Data’ and are moving into the era of ‘Hyper Data’ – the extremely large and diverse sets of data (both structured and unstructured) that are growing exponentially as the reliance on digital technologies increases.

The wealth of data that is now available through connected devices is a challenge – intelligent analysis is required to produce valuable insights and to identify future trends as the sheer volume means that traditional data processing software is often unable to store it efficiently or use it meaningfully. 

This article was originally published in the April 2025 Edition of International Fire & Safety Journal. To read your FREE copy, click here.