Fire Sentry's electro-optical digital fire detectors are sophisticated devices that sense the optical radiant energy emitted by fires. Optical fire detectors respond much faster than heat detectors since a fire's radiant energy travels at the speed of light. This explains why optical fire detectors are capable of operating at a longer distance and many times faster than heat detectors that use air convection and material conduction. The high speed of response is critical for detecting fires in time to successfully suppress a fire. Seconds can make the difference in successfully suppressing a small fire with little or no damage to having a disastrous fire that no suppression system can handle.