A public building such as a school or an office may face a number of hazards to its structure and the people and property inside. An earthquake may rattle a building and rupture oil lines, and may even cause the building to collapse. Meanwhile, a strong hurricane or tornado’s winds may buffet a building and strike it with debris, and hurricanes cause extreme flooding. But no matter what sort of weather or fault lines are nearby, any building is susceptible to the threat of fire. A fire may greatly damage a building and threaten the lives of people and property inside, so many fire protection services are in place today to keep people safe in a commercial building such as an office, mall, school, or bank. Today, fire alarm services are used to help install new fire alarms in a building to alert all occupants of a fire, and allow them to evacuate in time. When is it time to have fire alarm repairs or fire alarm installation done, courtesy of local fire alarm services?
The Threat and Expense of Fire
It can be said with confidence that fires are a common and serious hazard to commercial and public buildings, and statistics are kept to determine how often buildings catch on fire and how much property damage is done. Hotels and motels, for example, sometimes have to deal with fire, and this is one of the common building types that suffers from accidental fires. Every year, hotel and motel fires cause around 15 fatalities and 150 injuries across the United States, and these fires add up to close to $76 million in property damage among hotels and motels annually. Hospitals and other health care facilities often suffer from fires as well, such as when an electrical device malfunctions and spits sparks onto a patient’s dry bedding or pillow, or drapes on the windows. Office buildings are also common victims of accidental fires.
Warehouses, too, may suffer from fires. The good news is that while this results in property damage, very few lives or lost or threatened in warehouse fires. And better still, warehouse fires are becoming less common ever since these statistics first started being kept. Back in 1980, a total of 4,700 warehouse fires were recorded across the United States, but by 2011, that figure had dropped to 1,200 or so. All the same, any fire is a tragic loss of property (and sometimes lives), so fire alarm services can and should be hired to keep a building safe and prepared for fires.
What Fire Alarm Services Can Provide
A major measure taken against the threat of fire is simply to be alerted to the danger. Fire is destructive, so cities and states have codes and statutes about fire protection services in public buildings, from banks to offices to schools. This includes the installation, inspection of, and repair of fire alarms throughout a building, and good care of these devices can go a long way toward protecting property and lives. When a building is first constructed, fire alarm services offer contractors who install the fire alarms and the smoke detectors that are connected to them, among other hardware. As time goes on, a building’s owners should have fire alarm services send inspectors to check over the fire alarms and ensure that they are functional and up to code. If they are not, they may be repaired or replaced to ensure maximum safety. A business owner who purchases an old building for their work may hire fire alarm services to perform this same duty, just to be sure.
When a fire is detected, this sends a signal to all fire alarms throughout a building, and they will give off a loud and distinctive alarm so that everyone can hear them. The wall-mounted fire alarms will be numerous enough, and strategically distributed, so that everyone in the building can hear them no matter where they are. These wall-mounted alarms also have bright flashing lights on them for the benefit of the deaf and hard of hearing. And of course, these alarms send a signal to nearby firehouses so that trucks and firefighter crews will rush to the premises at once and put out the blaze, should there be one (false alarms often happen, too).