The Paterson Housing Authority has many projects. The worst were found at Christopher Columbus (since torn down). High-rises of 10 stories or more. The best projects found were the senior citizen.
The basements had flooded at Christopher Columbus with waste water from some flooding where the fire alarm panels were located. Smoke detectors and pull boxes were destroyed by the tenants. Other electrical contractors had their conduits pulled off the walls maliciously.
The fire alarm design was to move the panels to the guard kiosks, install rigid steel conduits with 14 gage steel plate covers and mesh cages over smoke detectors in the hallways. This design was carried forward to the other Projects in Paterson.
The Elizabeth Housing Authority seemed to be better managed than the other cities, with an architect (Eli Martin) in charge of renovation projects.
The Elizabeth projects, other than senior citizen, were 3 story apartment type housing. The fire alarm design from Paterson was carried forward to Elizabeth, but modified slightly. One of the reasons for the destruction of the fire alarm system was that if an alarm went off in one section of a building, the whole building sounded and everyone had to go out side (cold, snow, rain, etc.) Most were false alarms caused by smoking and pull box detonation.
In Elizabeth, the pull boxes were eliminated. In their place was an automatic dialing alarm system with a separate zone sounding for each stairway. A separate panel for each building. Each end of the building had a red strobe light to indicate an alarm in the building for the fire department. Outside each stairway was a zone annunciator to indicate which floor was sounding (basement, 1, 2, 3, attic) so the fire department did not have to go into the boiler room to look at the panel. A "Knox" box (a little safe) was mounted at the stairway entrance with keys for all of the apartments adjoining the stairway.
Other projects included card swipe building security systems, basketball lighting, stairway lighting, and air conditioning circuits.
City of Elizabeth Housing project Migliore Manor. Installed 1994, what it looks like 12/2001.
Despite the damage to the buildings, the fire alarm system is still intact. Boards covering the some windows, some windows broken, and graffiti everywhere. Our main objective and the major cost element was to make the fire alarm system as indestructible as possible. Still...this is not right!