In this paper a small pattern language for fire alarm systems is presented. The
pattern language documents the architecture of an object-oriented framework for a
family of fire alarm systems. The framework covers a spectrum of fire alarm
systems ranging from small office systems to large distributed systems for industrial
multi-building plants. Important patterns in the pattern language are the Point
pattern, covering the abstraction of sensors and actuators, and the Deviation pattern,
dealing with alarms, faults, and other abnormal conditions.