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The wrong way to do fire protection
CT Fire Protection • Jul 01, 2019
You're sitting at the office on a Monday morning and out of nowhere, an alarm goes off. A little hesitant, you get on your phone and call 9-1-1, "an alarm is going off but there's no fire, what do I do?"
They send out a team, and you start to calm down once the professionals are at work. A few hours go by, and they find out the problem has nothing to do with your fire alarm, it was just a sprinkler malfunction. Nothing too important though, right?
Wrong. Any sprinkler that isn't working properly is a hazard to the whole building, and according to national fire laws, those have to be functional.
You go back inside and realize, "Wait, the alarm is still going off." It turns out that the guys who came out didn't fix the problem. What you didn't know is that the fire department doesn't repair the fire prevention equipment in that office you just started leasing, you've got to find someone else for that.
The fire department will send out someone to inspect your equipment and ensure that it is all up to code, but when that's all said and done, you have to find another party to come out and do repairs if something isn't working.
So, that alarm has been going off all day, and after hours of searching, you found someone who repairs fire protection equipment. They come out and assess the damage, which is a second bill, "but I already know what the problem is, it's the sprinklers!" Unfortunately, it's not that simple. A service tech still has to come out and determine the problem with the sprinkler, before they can fix anything.
It's the next day, and you still have that alarm going off saying your equipment isn't working. Another technician comes out, and after a few hours of work he has the sprinkler system all patched up. "Great, now we can put this in the past," you think to yourself. Then the technician gives you the news, "you're going to need someone else to come out and inspect my work because I'm not a certified inspector."
Wednesday morning, you get a piece of mail from the local Fire Department. It's a bill for a fire alarm inspection. "But wait, they didn't even do anything," it comes as a surprise. Though they still came in response to your call, so you still have accountability for the cost.
Three days later, you've got a bill from the fire department, a repairman, and a fire safety inspector. Three different people you had to go back and forth making calls and sending emails. Three separate bills for time wasted on repeated inspections.
The easier solution is to go through a fire protection company, such as CT Fire Protection, Inc. It's not something the average business owner thinks about daily; you've got to keep your safety equipment up to code, and the people who tell you it isn't are completely separate from those who can fix it.
We employ certified inspectors so that when a new or current property has something wrong with there equipment, our technicians can determine what that is. The same people can order the parts and repair the system.
Since it's all done under one roof, the person who comes out to inspect it, and repair it, is the same person who can determine that it is safe and up to code with local fire laws. That means less responsibility for your business and less stress for you as a business owner.
Going through CT Fire Protection, Inc. to monitor your fire safety equipment is the simple, cost-effective way to go.
Going over the general types of fire sprinkler and fire suppression inspections. Describes the process to business owners who aren't sure when they need a fire sprinkler inspection.
A backflow preventer is a system which keeps the non-potable water from flowing back into the clean supply. Local fire regulations require that business owners have their backflow inspected each year.
There are a variety of factors that a business must prepare for to protect its property. According to the NFPA, each year more than 3,000 commercial properties are set ablaze. The majority of these fires take place in business offices and generally speaking most of those could have been prevented. You wouldn't think that one broken fire sprinkler could be the sole reason a property burns down, but a working one would be the reason a fire is put out in time. An old beaten down power cable, a distracted employee, or a flickering light. None immediately seem like they would be a hazard, but that's where it leads. It's just a small flame at first, but it spreads. In a room with functional fire safety, the flame is put out in seconds and not too much damage is done. In a room where the sprinkler head is malfunctioning, within 30 seconds that small flame has grown into a disaster. Everything ablaze this loss will cost the company a fortune in repairs. That small risk of a fire is why local and national fire agencies require that all fire safety equipment be functional and up to date with the fire safety code. If they find a problem when they come out for the yearly inspection, they will give you a month to fix the problem or shut you out of business.