A properly serviced fire alarm monitoring service is essential for keeping your assets and employees safe. Early detection of smoke or fire will enable the building and its occupants to react properly and potentially save lives.
All businesses, whatever their size, should be equipped with an up-to-date fire alarm system designed for the safety of all occupants. Business stakeholders need to know the available services to protect their employees, property, and assets.
Fire Alarm Monitoring Services For Your Company
Inspection: Your business’s fire alarm system must be inspected regularly to comply with your state/local fire safety codes and regulations. National and local fire code states that the system needs to be inspected periodically to guarantee its functionality. The codes are made and enforced for the safety of property and people in the event of a fire.
Maintenance: Ensure your business receives reliable fire alarm monitoring service to guarantee your fire alarm system is always working properly. Get a provider whose technicians are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to resolve any problems with your system.
Monitoring: Once a fire alarm system recognizes a signal, the signal is given to a central station monitoring facility. Live operators are on call 24 hours every day to receive and react to these signals and would notify the authorities and your facility’s emergency contacts. This would ensure that emergency response personnel are alerted, and alarms are responded to properly, even during non-business hours.
Fire Alarm System vs. Fire Alarm Monitoring
What's the difference between unmonitored and monitored fire alarms? An unmonitored fire alarm system alerts the occupants of the building of a fire so they can safely exit the building. With an unmonitored alarm system, people in the building must call 911 so that the fire department is dispatched. A fire alarm monitoring service takes the alarm system to the next level by promptly sending a signal to the central station.
The central station would notify your selected contacts and the authorities so the fire department could respond without anyone in the establishment having to remember how to react and notify the authorities. If there's a problem with one of the connected life safety or fire protection systems, a fire alarm monitoring service would provide signals to the central station. This notifies your selected contacts of the issue.
Importance Of Fire Alarm Monitoring Service
Secure Your Assets
Everything in your business is protected from vandalism, burglary, and intruders. This would be of particular significance for businesses that operate in crime-prone areas. A fire alarm monitoring service also secures the assets from unscrupulous employees by discouraging theft.
Employee Safety
A fire alarm monitoring service also protects your employees from any possible dangers that may occur during the day or night, should they work in teams or alone.
Access Control
You can control who in the office has access to what. If there are some parts of the building or office you don't wish for any and all employees to access, a fire alarm monitoring service could help you gain more control. It could also help protect your business against employees who are no longer with the company and makes key management a simpler process.
Human Element
A fire alarm monitoring service can add crucial human element to your life safety system. At a central station, groups of agents monitor computer screens for trouble conditions, alarms, and other “off-normal” signals. Monitoring your alarm system ensures a response to a fire that starts even when nobody is present to report it.
Once a central station receives a system alarm or waterflow report, it will alert the local fire department, then notify the owner’s representative. This would make a huge difference if a fire starts if the building is unoccupied.
They would contact building management personnel first for other system conditions or faults. They would want to know if the situation requires dispatch and would ask a few questions to understand the emergency. If you do not respond, they could be instructed to alert the fire department.
Damage Mitigation
The destructive nature of a fire grows greatly every second it goes unchecked. A fire alarm monitoring service could make all the difference in how much damage a fire causes. There are lots of critical items in buildings—human lives, manufacturing equipment, business records, and costly inventories that would be pricey or hard to replace. A fire that isn’t extinguished promptly could have devastating consequences. A monitoring system could ensure a fast response and the best possible outcome.
Minimum Insurance Costs
Insurance is an important and necessary cost to the company’s operation. Many insurance companies require businesses to get security systems in place. The absence of a fire alarm monitoring service could increase your premiums or make it difficult to find adequate coverage, which could hurt your business if you need to file a claim.
Continued Operations
A successful theft or burglary could delay the operations of your company for days, weeks, or even months. This has implications not only for your company but also for your employees, who might not be able to do their jobs while you recover from the event. By preventing any major loss, you will mitigate company downtime, which could lead to employee dissatisfaction and loss of revenue. This also ties into employee safety.
Peace of Mind
With your assets protected with a fire alarm monitoring service, you can enjoy peace of mind. The demands of operating a business are tough enough, and you will have one less thing to worry about.
Reduced False Alarms
Regular inspections have been proven to reduce false alarms, and the reasons for this are twofold. First, as we just stated above, trained technicians on-site may be able to determine if there are problems with the system which might cause false alarms (new pets in the home, new equipment in the business, etc.). They could also identify any potential technical problems and correct them before they become an issue. Second, having a trained technician on-site allows for customer re-training.
Most false alarms on security systems are caused by user error. While you likely received training when the system was set up, as time progresses, we all forget the little things which can help reduce false alarms (bypassing zones in areas, for instance). New people in the business or home might also need a refresher on properly using the system.
This information isn't only true for “monitored” alarm systems but is true for CCTV systems and access control systems. Regularly scheduled maintenance of the system in place allows for its optimal use and continued performance. It is a small annual investment that can help keep your system in proper working order for years to come.
Why Should You Leave It to Professionals
When reacting to a fire in your property, every second counts. A fire alarm monitoring system ensures you could focus on following your employees’ fire escape plan to get everyone out ASAP. Rather than calling authorities yourself as you would need to do with a traditional smoke alarm, a fire alarm monitoring service does that step for you, resulting in an earlier notification and a faster response.
Is A Fire Alarm Monitoring Service Necessary?
If you depend only on a fire alarm to protect your workplace in an emergency, responding to a fire promptly might be a problem in one way or another. A delay in contacting emergency services could lead to loss of life or damages to your property.
Having a fire alarm monitoring service within your building can be a key aspect of your building’s life safety system and fire protection. Trusting trained technicians to maintain and install the system is a worthwhile investment to protect your employees and business.
Bottomline
Fire alarms are reliable and efficient ways to keep yourself and your property safe if you maintain them properly. In commercial buildings, you must be up to building codes; therefore, a fire alarm monitoring service is required. This would also help when an emergency strikes and no one is in the office. Whether you provide services, sell products, or anything in between, the truth is that you're not always present at your building.
If there's a commercial fire alarm when you are away, a disaster could occur without anyone there to take action.
Unlike security systems, fire alarm systems do not necessarily alert the fire department. Their primary purpose is to let the building’s occupants know there’s a fire and they must evacuate. This could imply irreparable damage to life and property.
Whether anyone’s in the establishment, a fire alarm monitoring service can make all the difference. You do not need to worry if someone will call the fire department when you are not there; the service takes care of it.