Design and Development of a Smart Fire Detection, Localisation and Emergency Response System for Workshops and Laboratories in Polytechnics in South-West Nigeria

Abstract

Fire is among the most serious hazards in technical education, and the workshops and laboratories of polytechnics are especially exposed because they concentrate flammable stores, high-power machinery, and reactive chemicals. This study designed, developed and evaluated a smart fire detection, localisation and emergency response system for workshops and laboratories in polytechnics in South-West Nigeria. A design-and-development experimental approach was employed, combining a fire-risk assessment with the construction and controlled testing of an integrated system. The system integrated distributed multi-sensor nodes (heat, smoke, flame, gas) with ESP32 microcontrollers, camera modules for vision-based detection, and a sensor-fusion and machine-learning layer for fire confirmation and zone localization. The response layer triggered targeted alarms, dispatched notifications to responders, and presented evacuation guidance. Controlled fire-simulation testing showed a detection accuracy of 96.4%, a false-alarm rate of 2.8%, a localization precision of 94.2% by zone, and an end-to-end response latency of 4.2 seconds. The system achieved 98.2% reliability (uptime) over the test period. Compared with conventional standalone detectors, the smart system demonstrated significantly earlier detection (mean: 18.4 seconds vs. 42.6 seconds) and substantially lower false-alarm rates (2.8% vs. 14.6%). Expert validation rated the system highly for functionality (3.80), reliability (3.60), and safety (4.00). The findings demonstrate that integrated smart fire systems are technically feasible, operationally effective, and practically valuable for protecting lives and assets in Nigerian polytechnic workshops and laboratories, and they provide a deployable design and evidence base for wider adoption in the region.