So, just how important is fire alarm monitoring to a business? Is it just another unnecessary expense?
Thousands of businesses across the UK have fire alarm systems installed. The systems give them early warning in the event of a fire, protecting their people, property and business. During working hours, a fire alarm activation will alert employees on site to a fire situation. When appropriate, an emergency call to the fire brigade will be made. The fire brigade will usually arrive on-site within a few minutes. Within high risk environments, the fire brigade will automatically attend. However, for lower risk sites where monitoring is in place, the fire brigade will attend on confirmation of a fire.
During working hours, this is fine as the staff on-site can confirm if there is in fact a fire. They can then take the appropriate action.
Now, imagine the following scenario. A business has a fire alarm system installed, in accordance with regulatory requirements. They carry out the weekly tests and they also have a maintenance contract in place to ensure the fire alarm stays in perfect working order. All this is at cost to the business. However, there is no fire alarm monitoring and they close the building at the end of each working day for the night, or the weekend, or even longer in the case of festive holidays.
If a fire took hold during these unoccupied hours the system would still activate and trigger the sounders. However, there’s nobody there to take the appropriate action. The fire will most likely spread and become a major incident. And by the time someone notices a bright orange glow whilst passing and alerts the fire brigade, it may be too late to save anything.
Over 70% of businesses involved in a major fire either do not reopen, or subsequently fail within 3 years of the fire.
Fire alarm monitoring connects your automatic fire detection system to an alarm receiving centre. This enables them to call the emergency services within seconds of the activation of a heat or smoke detector.
This could be the difference between going to work the following day to find the smouldering shell of your work place, no job for either you or the staff that depend on you as the business is gone, or arriving to find a small issue was dealt with overnight and suffering some disruption whilst repairs and clean up take place.
In comparison, the cost of monitoring your fire alarm is negligible versus the cost of losing your business.
Would you be one of the 70%?
If you would like to discuss fire alarm monitoring or receive a no obligation quotation, please contact one of our Fire & Security Consultants on 0330 094 7404.
