National Trust to Trial Thatch Fire Prevention System in Bid to Protect Heritage

New fire prevention system is to be trialled by The National Trust to help protect England heritage.

Aylesbury, United Kingdom (PRWEB) September 3, 2006 -- A new thatch fire prevention system, ThatchGARD, will be trialled at a small National Trust property. ThatchGARD is currently being installed at a traditional estate workers cottage in Gunby, Lincolnshire that is under the protection of the National Trust.

The property, built in the late 18th century in the Lincolnshire vernacular style from mud and stud construction, has recently been re-thatched in longstraw. The National Trust, as the guardian of a large number of thatched buildings, has agreed to trial ThatchGARD with the intention of a long-term evaluation of the systems performance. ThatchGARD is designed to protect a thatched building via a specialised alarm system designed to alert property owners to the risk of fire well before it starts.

"Prevention is the key to protecting our heritage against the very real risk of fire, as once started, thatch fires are almost impossible to stop, potentially causing ten of thousands of pounds worth of damage. At worst, we face the irretrievable loss of part of our country's history", said John Steel, CEO at ThatchGARD.

With a significant proportion of thatch fires starting due to heat transferred from an active chimney to the roof, ThatchGARD is the only product of its kind to monitor the temperature of thatch enabling swift action to be taken to control the fire. A thatch roof could be charring for days before anyone notices, but by that point it is too late to prevent the inevitable.

ThatchGARD can eliminate thatch fires by tackling the root cause of the problem. Temperature sensors continuously monitor the thatch, alerting a control unit which sounds an alarm once it reaches levels, which could cause the thatch to char and ultimately ignite. Alarms sound at ‘early warning’ and ‘danger’ levels which alert people in the building, as well as the dedicated ThatchGARD monitoring centre, who will contact up to six key holders or the fire service to take action.

About MyGARD
Set up in 2000 MyGARD has worked very hard to develop products and services to change the security industry. MyGARD was the first to develop monitoring software for use by its customers. More recently, it has increased monitoring functionality for the customer, whilst reducing the cost dramatically.

About The National Trust
The National Trust works to preserve and protect the coastline, countryside and buildings of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Protecting and opening to the public over 300 historic houses and gardens and 49 industrial monuments and mills.
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk

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