CoreFirst LLC, a producer of seismic retrofit systems for commercial and institutional buildings, today announced it has signed an exclusive sales and marketing agreement with Vancouver, BC-based Weir-Jones Engineering Consultants to commercialize Weir-Jones’ ShakeAlarm® earthquake early warning system (EEWS) throughout the United States, according to CoreFirst principals Benjamin Kaiser and Paul Conway.

The first US installation of ShakeAlarm was recently completed at the Radiator Building, a 36,000 square-foot, five-story, wood-framed office building located in a densely populated neighborhood in North Portland. The Radiator was chosen as the inaugural installation for its resilient design, with seismic safety a critical part of its structural engineering.

“It’s no secret that the Pacific Northwest is due for a large-scale seismic event,” Conway said. “What we haven’t had in place, until now, is an affordable system for building occupants that can provide critical advance warning and direct them to safety to minimize loss of life.”

The ShakeAlarm system recognizes and quantifies the faster but lower-energy seismic P-wave, which is the precursor to the more damaging S-wave. When used in conjunction with industrial or civil infrastructure control systems, these crucial seconds of warning can be leveraged to minimize runaway failure modes in critical structures, shut down gas and electricity feeds to infrastructure, thereby minimizing fire risk to assets after a seismic event.

For the Radiator and other commercial buildings, the ShakeAlarm system, after detecting a P-wave, will:

• Immediately send a warning text message to the cell phone of every Radiator occupant (regardless of whether he or she is in the building)

• Automatically shut down gas and electricity 

• Automatically return elevators to ground level

• Open any metered doors

• Activate backup power systems