The Skellefteå Fire Service looks after fire safety for a large municipality in north-east Sweden. To speed up emergency response times, and make the process safer, the service sought to install secure facade key cabinets. Property keys would be stored inside the cabinets, so authorised firefighters could have rapid building access if there was a fire.

To meet these needs, local Assa Abloy partner Valters Lås equipped every Skellefteå building using the municipality’s automatic alarm system with a facade cabinet secured with programmable mechatronic Cliq cylinders. Keys to their premises are locked inside.

Cliq combines electronic and mechanical security in a range of wireless cylinder applications. The cylinders’ power is supplied by a battery inside the Cliq key. Each key is physically identical, and programmable by a system administrator. Cliq Remote functionality enables administrators to change access rights from anywhere, allowing time-limited, flexible or temporary access for authorised keys.

“In Skåne they also have facade cabinets on the customers’ premises,” says Skellefteå fire engineer Johan Marklund. “While that’s a good solution, if a key to one cabinet is lost the mechanical cylinders on all of the cabinets have to be replaced. This isn’t a problem with Cliq cylinders on the facade cabinets.” Cliq locks only open if the programmable Cliq key has been authorised by the central admin system. With Cliq Remote, security administrators can transfer temporary access rights to any Cliq key in an instant, from anywhere, using the Cliq Web Manager software. Audit trails for any lock or key can be generated on demand.

In the event of a fire, firefighters can update their individual, programmable Cliq key at the station or while on the move, using a Cliq Remote key updater kept in the fire engine. There’s no longer any need for fire stations to hold and manage multiple sets of keys, or for off-site firefighters to first go to the station to collect the right key. A rapid response means there’s more chance to prevent a fire from spreading and causing more damage.

“With the Cliq Remote key updater that we have in each fire engine, we can authorise a key for a limited period of time. If we lose the key during an emergency, for example, it becomes useless after 60 minutes,” says Johan Marklund.

“Previously, we had a key safe at every fire station,” he adds. “At the main station alone there were about 100 keys. We had to take inventory regularly and sometimes we found

that certain keys no longer worked. In a serious situation, we wouldn’t have been able to enter the premises without breaking down the door.”

“I recommend that emergency services in other locations choose the same solution.”