Staying safe from fire is an ongoing action. It means checking your sprinklers on a regular basis to make sure they’re in working order. It means a check-up at least once per year, if not more frequently, to ensure your fire alarm is loud enough to alert everyone in the building. At the end of the day, it’s better to be too careful than not careful enough. Fire sprinkler installations are one of your first lines of defense should a fire start going out of control, whittling it down just enough to buy you time for the fire department to arrive. Learn more about the nature of fires, the risk of your industry and how fire sprinkler installations can keep everyone safe.
Fires happen every day. The vast majority of them, however, can be easily prevented. A fire needs only a few things to go out of control — an open flame, dry material and a lack of oversight. This is exacerbated by additional factors like poor ventilation and a deficit of fire combating materials, such as nearby extinguishers or sprinklers. Businesses are required to have fire evacuation plans in case things take a turn for the worst as well as fast ways to contact the local fire department. The Fort Lauderdale Fire Department, for example, responded to an astonishing 48,000 calls back in 2014.
A fire can occur anywhere, but certain locations have been deemed a higher risk than others. Hotels, offices, apartments and facilities that take care of the sick account for half of all high-rise fires in the United States. A high rise fire is a specific category of fire that consumes large buildings, causing an exorbitant amount of damage and putting nearby structures and people at risk. Hotel and motel fires cause an estimated 15 deaths and 150 injuries every year. Combine this with the amount of property loss at $75 million and there is endless incentive to call for fire sprinkler installations.
There is a bright side to these statistics. Fires in warehouse properties, specifically, have seen a substantial decline over the past 30 years due to increased awareness about their risk factors. They went from around 4,700 fires in 1980 to just over 1,200 in 2011. The combination of automatic sprinklers alongside early warning detection systems do a remarkable job of reducing injuries and loss of life from sudden fires. The National Fire Protection Association (also known as the NFPA) has no record of a fire killing more than two people in a protected building. This means a fully functioning sprinkler system throughout the structure.
Protecting against fire is more important than ever. The Fort Lauderdale Fire Department has experienced a 12% increase in calls for service between the span of 2014 and 2015. There are different types of fire protection services for each unique structure, designed specifically to detect the earliest signs of smoke build-up possible to keep damage and injury at bay. Fire sprinkler installations are best done in each and every room to control as much of the fire as possible and keep it from spreading to nearby buildings. If you already have a fire sprinkler in place, fire sprinkler maintenance will make sure it’s fully functioning all days of the year.
A fire sprinkler that isn’t up to task has a few warning signs for you to be aware of. The most common is leakage, that of which should never happen and is often a sign of faulty valve caps. Another sign is a sudden and unexpected activation, which can waste precious water needed to combat a fire when it does occur. Even a working fire sprinkler should be serviced at least once per year to make sure it’s always ready to work when needed. Seek out fire sprinkler installations this year and make sure nobody has to worry about the aftermath of a fire.
