Question:
i am working on an article for Pa Fireman Magazine do you think manual pull stations are becomming obsolete should we still be installing them as back ups. Personally checking with many AHJ around me none can ever remember a pull station being pulled first in a fully protected building only a building which had just pull stations for protection manual system .The smokes always activated first and pull stations were pulled after first alarm came in. mostly pull stations have been nothing more than false alarms for communitys. for that matter do buildings that have only pull stations no smokes give people a confidnce they think there fully protected with a automatic fire system when there not.

Answer: -Unless they change the rules (and the building codes), pull stations will always be a required component in any building requiring a supervised, listed fire alarm system.

-I think one of the reasons that pull stations are required is because no one single device can provide a 100 percent guarantee detection of a fire. Smoke & heat detectors can fail at any given time, thus a pull station can be used to manually trigger the alarm during egress. I have seen many improvements in the application of fire alarms over the years, such as strobes in all restrooms, and automatic fan shutdown.