Fire Protection and Prevention
Types of Fire Protection Services
Fire alarms can save lives. Having a fire alarm within your home or business can ensure its safety, and, with the right system, prevent damage, injury, or death. Four property classes account for half of high-rise fires: apartments, hotels, offices, and facilities that care for the sick. Every year, hotel and motel fires result in $76 million in property loss and cause an estimated 15 deaths and 150 injuries every year.
The two most commonly recognized fire alarm systems are ionization smoke detection and photoelectric smoke detection. Ionization smoke detection is generally more responsive to flaming fires and photoelectric smoke detection is generally more responsive to fires that begin with a long period of smoke, according to The National Fire Protection Association.
Other known fire alarm systems include Fire suppression systems, which are commonly used for larger structures like hospitals, warehouse and hotels. These kinds of systems use a wet or dry chemicals or agents to suppress fire. According to Fire Safety Inc., The sodium bicarbonate-based dry chemical is more effective than water on flammable liquid and electrical fires. ABC dry chemical also suppresses wood, paper, cloth fires. Both are environmentally safe, non-toxic and economical. There are many different kinds of fire suppression systems that include, but not limited to, Wet Chemical Extinguishing Systems, Water Mist Systems, and water spray fixed systems. Regardless of suppression system activation or location of the fire, if detection is able to provide a warning 10 to 15 minutes before the end of the incipient stage, the fire department should be able to limit damage.
Protecting Your Business from Fire
In 2006 to 2010, U.S. fire departments responded to an estimated average of 6,240 structure fires in or on health care properties per year. in 2010, U.S. fire departments responded to 1,200 fires in hospitals according to NFPA. Confined cooking fires account for 55% of medical facility fires and electrical malfunction, accounting for 19%, is the leading cause of non-confined fires in hospitals. According to data from the National Fire Protection Association, between 1980 and 1984, automatic extinguishing equipment was present in 47% of hospital fires; from 2007 to 2011, that figure had risen to 78%.
Fires in warehouse properties have declined substantially over the past 30 years, from 4,700 in 1980 to 1,200 in 2011. Warehouse fires are associated with higher average property losses per fire than most other occupancies, but they also have lower than average rates of injury per 1,000 fires.
Why You Should Perform Fire Alarm Inspections
Fire prevention and detection is critical to safeguarding businesses and structures worldwide. The combination of automatic sprinklers and early warning systems in all buildings could reduce overall injuries, loss of life, and property damage by at least 50%. Routine fire alarm inspections are needed to maintain safety and quality of your establishment. Nearly half of dry (or possibly wet) chemical system failures were due to lack of maintenance.
In commercial areas, non-chemical suppression systems operate effectively 96% of the time, and sprinklers operated in 91% of all reported fires large enough to activate sprinklers, excluding buildings under construction and buildings without sprinklers in the fire area. Chemical systems in the area of fire operated in 81% of structure and therefore failed to operate in 19% of these fires. If you haven’t experienced a fire, you should take the necessary steps to prevent one since The NFPA has no record of a fire killing more than two people in a building where the system was properly operating. Investing in fire alarm systems, no matter the kind, can help protect your investments, employees and the future of your business.
