By: Casey Bennett, Director of Fire Technologies
As Fire Prevention Month draws to a close, I’ve been encouraged to see a wealth of content out there about how both individuals and businesses can take fire prevention into their own hands and update their fire safety plans. Being more conscientious about the risk of fires in your building is a great step, but as a technology integrator, I like to focus on how technological solutions can help empower our efforts to keep ourselves and those around us safer.
With that idea in mind, here are a few ideas that take advantage of widely available technological solutions (including my central focus, fire alarm) to improve any business’s fire prevention plan and minimize risk for people and property.
Leverage Modern Fire Alarm Technology
Newer fire alarm panels like Honeywell’s Notifier Inspire series and platforms like CLSS (Connected Life Safety Services) provide several advantages over traditional fire alarm infrastructure, but one of the biggest ones is increased visibility into your system. CLSS provides updates on device and system health, allowing you to ensure that your system and detectors are functioning optimally as part of your fire prevention plan, and be proactive about maintenance.
And overall, having access to your system from anywhere allows you to stay informed on the status of your system and building without needing to be at the physical location of the panel. This includes real-time monitoring and alerts for events like fires, enabling you to always make decisions about your system from a position of strength.
Train Employees on your Portable Fire Extinguishing Devices
Chances are, your business has at least one portable fire extinguisher, as section 13.6 of NFPA 1 requires portable fire extinguishers in buildings of every occupancy classification other than one and two-family dwellings. That’s a great thing, because portables are an incredibly effective tool, successfully eliminating fire risks within two minutes 93.5% of the time… when they are employed.
And according to a Harris market research poll, 77% of employees said they would feel more comfortable using an extinguisher to put out a fire if they were trained. This is a simple problem with a simple solution! Keep your employees up to date on training with portables – one of them might use that knowledge to save lives.
Protect High-Value Assets with Clean Agent
Sprinklers are an excellent code-driven solution that helps protect the structure of your building against fires, but to protect high-value assets, you should consider an extra step: a clean agent suppression solution. There are a couple of key reasons why this makes sense:
- Early detection: sprinklers typically activate when the temperature of a room rises above 155 degrees Fahrenheit, by which point damage has likely already been done. Clean agent systems are typically smoke activated, and therefore are likely to catch the problem earlier.
- Safe for documents and electronics, clean agent is released in a gaseous form and leaves no residue, as opposed to sprinklers which douse the room with water. In this way, clean agent avoids doing any damage to your high-value assets.
