When’s the last time you checked your fire alarm? Fire safety is a fact of everyday life, but it’s not uncommon for business-owners to neglect their basic necessities when work, school and social lives are all clamoring for attention. The leading cause of nonresidential fires are cooking, at a whopping 29.3% of recently reported fires, and an almost 4,000 hotel and motel fires are reported in the U.S. every year. Keeping in touch with your local fire protection company is key in making sure your place of business remains safe year-round. Read on to learn more about fire protection services, fire alarm monitoring and what you can do to stay on top of one of the most common hazards of everyday life.
Important Statistics
Did you know hotel and motel fires result in as high as $76 million in property loss yearly? Many of these fires are small and contained, as well, and don’t need to cover the entire building to be dangerous and cause wide-scale property damage. As many as 14% of non-confined hotel and motel fires were found to have no smoke alarms present and sprinklers are still surprisingly rare, accounting for only 36% on average in educational properties and 24% in stores and offices. A recent survey by the National Federation Of Fire Equipment Distributors (NFED) found that, out of the over 13,000 fire incidents reported, portable fire extinguishers successfully extinguished over 90% of all fires. Speaking of which…
How To Stay Safe
The most basic tools to extinguishing fires, or getting them under control until the fire department arrives, are sprinklers, fire extinguishers and alarms. In commercial areas with large oven ranges, non-chemical suppression systems were found to operate as high as 96% of the time. A recent study also found that 98% of participants were able to successfully use a fire extinguisher without any prior training. Routine fire alarm inspections should be done to make sure your alarms function properly to the amount of chemicals in the air and maintain their battery life. Contact your local fire protection company today and see how you can step up your safety measures for the future.
