Whether you are responsible for a residential building or another type of business enterprise, it’s vital that your fire alarm systems are in optimal working order. It is also important that you have on-site, trained personnel to provide assistance if a fire is detected.
When you have specifically-trained personnel, they will know how to proceed if a fire breaks out. This includes knowing when to contact the fire department. Having these measures in place can make a profound impact on the health and safety of everyone that is present in or connected with your building.
Evacuation plans are also essential, and they should be posted throughout your building. A good practice is to have drills on a regular basis so that when or if an alarm is sounded, your employees will know exactly how and where to proceed to safety.
Fire protection companies will tell you that overall injuries, fatalities, and property damage could be reduced by at least 50% when buildings have a combination of automatic sprinklers and early-earning systems in place. A combined system makes a significant difference because when a 10 to 15 minute warning can be provided prior to the end of a fire’s incipient stage, the fire department is usually able to limit damage to the building. It’s important to note that this is regardless of the location of the fire as well as the type of fire suppression system activation.
In addition to ensuring that your fire alarm systems are operational, you also want to ensure that your suppression systems are routinely inspected and in excellent working order. A lack of routine maintenance has been determined to be the cause of 44% of chemical system failures. This applies to nearly half of all dry or possibly wet chemical systems.
When dry or possibly wet chemical systems were operational, they performed effectively 69% of the time. In the presence of fires that were large enough to active these systems, they operated just over half of the time at 55%. In the case of structural fires that activated operational equipment, when these chemical systems were in place, they operated 81% of the time. They failed to operate, however, in 19% of the reported fires.
When you contact a fire protection company to schedule an inspection, repairs, or to update a system, you can ask them about the different types of fire protection services that they provide. At that time, you want to be sure to schedule routine maintenance so that your building’s fire alarm systems and suppression systems are in optimal working order.
