Fire safety is not something to be taken lightly, especially for commercial properties like offices, retail spaces, or hospitals. It’s important for not only management, but also anyone who works in those buildings to know fire safety protocol and to ensure that the appropriate systems and equipment are kept up to date and working. A fire alarm inspection service and other types of fire protection services should be conducted regularly. Being proactive can save lives and property, as well as reduce a huge expense. And given that apartments, hotels, offices, and medical facilities make up half of all high-rise fires, it’s important that these buildings be knowledgeable about how to prevent fires and what type of services and equipment are needed to keep everyone safe.
Why Is Fire Protection So Important?
Without fire protection, there would be a huge number of lives lost every year, due to fires. Even though people die every year in fires, that number would be drastically increased without the aid of fire protection services, like fire alarms, sprinkler systems, and fire suppression systems. It can also help reduce the number of injuries sustained in a fire.
Fire protection can not only help protect people in case of a fire, but provide warnings ahead of time, which lets people evacuate safely. Additionally, fire protection services like sprinkler systems can even put a small fire out before it can grow.
In addition to saving lives, fire protection can help keep the costs of damages down and in some cases, your insurance rate may improve if you have extensive fire protection services.
Ultimately, with the protection of automatic sprinklers and early warning systems, overall injuries, deaths, and property damage could be reduced by at least half. Every building should have these systems installed for maximum fire protection.
How Often Should I Have a Fire Alarm Inspection Service Come In?
There are weekly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual inspections that should all be done, though the annual list is much longer than the others. You should make sure that signal LED’s are working on a weekly basis and that fire sprinkler devices are correctly attached to the alarm on a quarterly basis. Be sure and check the lead-acid battery and test them semi-annually.
Annually, you want to make sure that the panel is functional, test the battery charger, test and visually inspect the alarm sounds. Smoke and heat detectors should also be tested and inspected.
Keep in mind that building maintenance staff are often qualified to do visual inspections — and can receive training to become qualified — but the annual testing and any extensive inspections must be done by a state licensed inspector. It’s also worth having a professional fire alarm inspection service come on the premises annually to confirm that everything is in working order.
This type of maintenance is crucial. Indeed, almost half of dry or wet chemical system failures happened because the appropriate maintenance wasn’t carried out.
What Other Systems Should Be In Place?
Sprinklers and fire suppression systems are also useful to have in the building. Used in combination with fire alarms, they can help extinguish small fires that start or keep the flames at bay long enough to evacuate people in the building or until the fire department can get to the scene.
A fire evacuation system should also be put in place and regular fire safety drills should be conducted by the building. One of the most important things in a fire situation is for everyone to know what to do and how to evacuate. The fire department should be called, the fire alarm pulled, and everyone should know where to go — it can help reduce panic and confusion in an already chaotic time and can ultimately save lives.
Be sure that a fire alarm inspection service is coming to your building regularly and that fire drills and other fire safety equipment is being tested and inspected on a routine basis. These preventive steps will matter the most in an emergency situation.
