Villa Area PSB test - Amsterdam

All products used by the PSB have been thoroughly tested and approved. Along with cold smoke tests, a number of fire tests have been undertaken including at the Villa Arena Car Park in Amsterdam, Europe's largest single storey underground car park. The test was overseen by the Amsterdam Fire Brigade and involved lighting one car, parked between two other cars. Because of the high-density of the multi-criteria detectors, the PSB system detected the fire and was activated automatically on to fire ventilation mode within three minutes.

The fire had been artificially accelerated by the fire service who opened one of the car windows to increase the fire load. As the PSB system forced so much air over the car, the fire began to die, at which point the test was stopped and restarted after adding combustibles to the car. Over the following 15 minutes, the fire grew and eventually spread to the adjacent cars. Throughout this, the fire service was able to stand just metres away from the fire, demonstrating the cooling effect of the system over the fire.

Additionally as the smoke was being controlled away from the fire, the fire service was able to monitor its progress closely and eventually extinguish the fire with ease. The system worked as planned and proved itself without the use of a sprinkler system.