SquintPRO · Fire and smoke
Video smoke and fire detection: early visual alerts for large open areas
Video smoke and fire detection uses the cameras that already watch a warehouse, a rolling mill or an outdoor yard to raise an alert when visible smoke or flame appears in view. It does not replace the certified detectors or aspirating smoke detection your fire system is built on. What it adds is an earlier visual signal in large spaces where smoke rises slowly or spreads before it reaches a ceiling detector, and a live picture for the control room when any alarm sounds. Below: where that layer helps, where it does not, and how SquintPRO, the video analytics platform Interkey builds, is tested on your own cameras.
Published 9 min read
In short, for managers
- What it is: camera-based alerts for visible smoke and flame, on CCTV you already have.
- What it is not: a fire alarm system, or a replacement for the detectors and aspirating smoke detection your fire code requires. Those stay exactly as they are.
- Where it helps: large open areas such as warehouses, rolling mills, plant floors, outdoor yards and car parks, where ceiling detectors can react late, and the control room, which gets a picture with every alert.
- How it is proven: on your own cameras, in a pilot with written success criteria, before anyone relies on it.
- Where it runs: on-premise, so footage stays on your site, or in the cloud with 3, 6 or 12 months' retention.
Why fires in large open areas are found late
Most building fire systems rely on point detectors on the ceiling. They work well in rooms of normal height, where smoke reaches them quickly. A fire detection system for large industrial spaces has to deal with four things:
- High ceilings. Smoke from a small fire cools as it rises and spreads, and can take a long time to reach a detector at roof level.
- Stratification. Warm air trapped under a hot roof can form a layer that cooler smoke does not pass, so the smoke spreads sideways below the detectors. This is common in Saudi summers under metal roofs.
- Airflow. Large doors, extraction fans and air handling move and dilute smoke, so it may never collect where a detector waits for it.
- Open and outdoor areas. Storage yards, loading areas, tank farms and open car parks have no ceiling at all, so ceiling detection does not apply.
There is a second problem. When an alarm sounds on a large site, the control room must see what is happening before it sends people. Without a picture, someone walks to the zone to look, and minutes pass.
Point detectors, aspirating smoke detection and video smoke and fire detection compared
Each method senses something different. They are layers of one design, not rival options.
| Question | Point detectors | Aspirating smoke detection | Video smoke and fire detection |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it senses | Smoke particles or heat that reach the detector | Air drawn through sampling pipes and tested for smoke particles | Visible smoke or flame in a camera view |
| Where it works well | Rooms and corridors of normal height | High ceilings, clean rooms, data halls, places where early warning matters | Large open halls and outdoor areas already covered by cameras |
| Main limits | Late in tall spaces, stratification and strong airflow | Needs pipe design, maintenance and a sampling layout for the space | Needs a clear view and enough light; steam, dust, glare and fog can look like smoke |
| Role in the certified fire system | Part of it, as your fire code requires | Part of it where the design specifies it | Not part of it. A supplementary visual layer |
| What the control room receives | An alarm from a zone or address | An alarm, often at several alert levels | An alert with a video clip and the camera that saw it |
Which detection your building must have is set by the fire protection requirements that apply to it and approved by the authorities, including the General Directorate of Civil Defense. Video analytics sits beside that design and does not change it.
Where video detection fits, and where it does not
A camera sees only what is in front of it. Be clear about what that means before you spend on it:
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- It fits where a camera already looks across a large space: racking aisles, a rolling mill or plant floor, a storage yard, a car park. Visible smoke low in the space can appear in view before it reaches the roof.
- It fits as visual verification. Any alarm is more useful when the operator can see the area at once.
- It does not fit inside closed cabinets, ceiling voids, cable trays or rooms with no camera. A fire the camera cannot see, it cannot report.
- It does not fit in the dark without lighting, or where steam or heavy dust fill the view daily, unless the pilot proves otherwise.
- It does not replace a detector, sprinkler, alarm panel or evacuation plan, and it does not trigger suppression.
What SquintPRO does with smoke and flame
SquintPRO is Interkey's own video analytics platform and works on existing CCTV. For fire and smoke it is set up as follows:
- Smoke and flame are defined as events on the camera views you choose, in words or with a reference image, without retraining a model. Each definition is tested on your own recordings before its alerts are switched on.
- Each alert carries video evidence and a review step, so an operator confirms or dismisses it.
- Alerts go to the control room, into the video management, control-room or incident system you already run.
- Every event is logged with timestamp, camera, zone and event type, a record the safety team can review after a drill or incident.
- Footage can be searched afterwards by description or reference image, and a person or vehicle followed across cameras on a site map, which helps work out where a fire started.
The same streams can carry other safety use cases, such as restricted zones or PPE. SquintPRO does not use face recognition.
Industrial fire detection: areas where a camera adds an early visual alert
| Area | Why ceiling detection can be late | What a camera can show | What to test in the pilot |
|---|---|---|---|
| High-bay warehouse | Tall roof, stratification under a hot roof | Smoke rising between racks | Views down each aisle, lighting at night |
| Rolling mill or steel plant | Large hall, strong airflow, heat from the process | Smoke or flame away from normal process zones | Steam and process smoke that must not raise alerts |
| Plant floor and workshops | Extraction and open doors move smoke | Smoke near machines and stores | Welding and cutting glare, dust |
| Outdoor yard or tank farm | No ceiling at all | Smoke or flame in stored material or vehicles | Sun glare, sandstorms, distance to the far edge |
| Car park | Open sides or low ceilings with ventilation | Smoke from a vehicle | Headlights, exhaust on cold mornings |
The safety team chooses the areas and who receives each alert. Interkey configures the events and tunes them during the pilot.
Camera and site conditions that decide the result
A smoke detection camera is only as useful as its view. The camera survey checks each view for:
- Field of view. The area where smoke would first appear must be in the picture, and large enough in the image to be seen.
- Lighting. Smoke is hard to see at night without light, and some cameras switch to infrared and lose contrast.
- Things that look like smoke. Steam, fog, dust and exhaust, each recorded in the pilot so the event is tuned against it.
- Things that look like flame. Welding, cutting, reflections, sunlight and warning beacons.
- Moving cameras. A PTZ camera on patrol does not watch one area constantly.
- Stream access. SquintPRO reads standard camera streams (RTSP/ONVIF). See which cameras SquintPRO works with.
The survey sorts each camera into usable as it is, usable after adjustment, or needing new hardware.
Early fire detection on industrial and hazardous sites
On oil and gas, petrochemical and heavy industrial sites, fire and gas systems are safety systems, certified for their function, and nothing here changes them. Video analytics adds what the control room can see, and how fast. On these sites it usually runs on-premise, inside the site network.
Cameras inside classified hazardous areas must be certified for the zone and installed under the site's permit rules. Often the better answer is to reuse cameras already in the zone, or look in from outside it. Read how Interkey approaches video analytics for oil and gas sites and the wider industrial safety practice.
Relatedvideo analytics for oil and gas sitesindustrial safety practice
How a first step works
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Camera survey.
Each candidate view is checked for field of view, lighting and look-alikes such as steam.
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Pilot scope.
One site, a defined set of cameras, smoke and flame events, and written success criteria, including the false alerts per shift you can accept.
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Controlled tests.
Where your safety rules allow it, smoke tests are run under the site's own permit regime, so the events are proven on real views.
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Integration.
Alerts go to the control-room or incident system you already use, with the clip attached.
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Measurement and rollout.
Detections, missed events and false alerts are measured against the criteria. More cameras or sites are added once the pilot passes. See the pilot scoping guide.
Deployment, data and cost
SquintPRO runs on-premise, so footage stays on your site, or in the cloud with 3, 6 or 12 months' retention. It is licensed per camera stream, with unlimited use cases on a licensed stream, and each quote is built from the site, the number of camera streams and the deployment model; see what determines SquintPRO pricing.
For sites in Saudi Arabia, Interkey carries out the survey, configuration, integration and tuning, and supports the system from Riyadh, with Arabic-speaking engineers who work with your safety and control-room teams. Where your policy requires footage to stay in the Kingdom, the on-premise option keeps processing and recordings on your own servers.
Questions safety and facilities managers ask
Can video smoke detection replace the smoke detectors required in our warehouse?
No. The detectors, aspirating smoke detection, alarm panel and sprinklers your fire code requires stay exactly as designed and approved. Video smoke detection is a supplementary layer: it can show visible smoke in a large space early and gives the control room a picture with each alert. It does not count towards required detection and does not trigger suppression.
Does camera-based fire detection work on the CCTV we already have in Saudi Arabia?
Often, on views the camera survey qualifies. SquintPRO reads standard camera streams (RTSP/ONVIF), so most sites in the Kingdom start with existing cameras. A view needs the area where smoke would first appear in frame, enough light at night, and a fixed position. The survey sorts each camera into usable, usable after adjustment, or needing new hardware.
How do you stop steam, dust and welding glare from raising false smoke or flame alerts?
By recording them. During the pilot, the conditions that look like smoke or flame on your site, such as process steam, dust, exhaust, welding and sun glare, are captured and the events are tuned against them. The false alerts per shift you can accept are written into the success criteria before the pilot starts, and measured against that number.
Can the footage and alerts stay inside our plant network?
Yes. With on-premise deployment, SquintPRO runs on servers inside your site and footage does not leave it, which suits plants whose policy fixes where video may be held. Alerts go to the control-room or incident system on the same network. A cloud option with 3, 6 or 12 months' retention exists for sites that prefer it.
How is video fire detection licensed, and what drives the cost?
SquintPRO is licensed per camera stream, with unlimited use cases on a licensed stream, so the cameras that watch for smoke can also carry PPE or restricted-zone alerts. The quote follows the number of camera streams, the deployment model and the integration work with your control room. Any new cameras or lighting the survey finds necessary are quoted separately.
How long does a smoke and flame detection pilot take?
We estimate it after the camera survey, not before. It depends on the number of cameras, how quickly controlled smoke tests can be scheduled under your permit rules, how often the conditions that look like smoke occur on site, and the integration with your control room. The pilot ends when the written success criteria have been measured.
Next
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Next step
Review your cameras for smoke and flame alerts
Tell us about the site, the areas where a fire could go unseen for too long, and roughly how many cameras cover them. We will tell you which views could support smoke and flame alerts, what could make them unreliable, and what a pilot would measure.
Or directly
+966-11-2180999 [email protected]Tawuniya Towers, North Tower, 7th Floor, King Fahad Highway, Olaya, P.O. Box 56835, Riyadh 11564, Saudi Arabia