When it comes to protecting the safety and well-being of the general public, one of the most important aspects of any building or establishment is the fire protection service. Fire protection companies provide complete, ongoing monitoring of the safety and security of a building.
What service, in particular, do fire protection companies provide? The actually deliver a broad range of services. Some of these include: fire alarm installation, fire alarm inspections and fire alarm repair.
These services are especially critical in high-rise buildings that are heavily populated, such as hospitals, apartment complexes, offices and hotels. In fact these four types of properties actually comprise 50% of all fires in high-rise buildings.
Fire departments in the U.S., according to National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) records from 2010, responded to 1,200 fires in hospital complexes alone. Cooking fires, electrical fires, unattended candles and cigarettes…clearly, it is apparent that there are myriad causes for fires.
Another category of buildings that needs fire alarm services is warehouse property. These fires often provide very dramatic news footage for viewers, with smoke billowing and flames leaping high in the air.
But one positive note associated with these types of fires is that based on 1,000 fires, warehouse fires have a lower than average injury rate. Another positive factor is that the number of warehouse property fires has declined substantially in recent years.
For example, 2011 saw 1,200 fires in warehouse properties. Compare this with the statistics from 1980, at which time there were 4,700 warehouse fires. This is a significant 30-year decline, which is good news since this category of fire results in a per average higher than average property loss than most other categories of properties.
“Safety first” is a key motto. For instance, renovation of an existing property may require upgrades in the existing fire alarm services and fire alarm systems. In a 24-hour period, if a sprinkler system is being disabled for more than a specified amount of hours, many times the local fire department must be notified.
Definitely, there has been much progress made in fire alarm safety and fire alarm services over the years. Hospitals, for instance have made impressive progress. For instance, according to NFPA, automatic extinguishing equipment in hospitals was present in 47% of fires between 1980 and 1984. Nearly 30 years later, the number had increased to 78% for the years between 2000-2011.
But then, on the other hand, there are the following statistics, to consider, too. Of 119 businesses surveyed recently, a fire evacuation plan was in place for only 35% of the organizations. Clearly, there is still a lot of work to be done. Investing in the services of fire protection companies is, literally, a matter of life and death.
