What Does a Fire Alarm Monitoring Company Do?

• Monitoring & Maintenance

January 11, 2022

Heard about fire alarm monitoring or thinking about implementing it into your fire safety strategy? We’ve got all the information you need to know and most importantly, what does a fire alarm monitoring company do?

What is fire alarm monitoring?

Fire alarm monitoring is the implementation of a third-party monitoring provider, who will provide 24/7 monitoring of the entire system, quickly identifying any alarm triggers and providing immediate action such as the sending of the emergency services.

Fire alarm monitoring provides a quicker and more reliable response to fire alarm triggers compared to a non-monitored system and can also help to reduce false alarms. 

Did you know that in just London alone, emergency services attended 38,000 false alarms? That’s 104 a day!

How does it work?

Fire alarm monitoring is relatively simple to set up and works by the monitoring provider connecting your fire alarm system to their alarm receiving centre so that they can constantly monitor your system for any alarm activations.  

Each alarm monitoring centre will have a team of monitoring operatives who are highly trained to identify and respond quickly and calmly to any alarm triggers. Here are the steps that take place when a fire alarm is triggered for a monitored fire alarm system. 

1. When a fire alarm is triggered, the system will send out a signal that is then received by the monitoring providers alarm receiving centre (ARC). 
2. The monitoring operatives will be notified of the alarm trigger via the signal and will carry out the key steps needed to deal with the potential emergency. 
3. Firstly, they will identify whether or not it is a false alarm. If the alarm is activated during the site’s working hours, they will do this by contacting the nominated key holder and informing them of the activation. The keyholder can then confirm whether or not it is, in fact, a false alarm and whether action needs to be taken.
4. If the keyholder confirms the alarm to be true, then the monitoring operative will quickly get to work deciding and actioning the most appropriate response. 
5. If the fire alarm triggers out of hours, with no or little personnel on-site, then the managing operatives will make the assumption that it is not a false alarm and action the agreed response.

How do monitoring companies respond?

Monitoring companies can respond in a number of ways to fire alarm system triggers. They have the capabilities to action extremely fast responses and can identify and action a response in a matter of minutes, therefore providing the least chance of fire damage. 

The response is most likely to always involve the fire brigade, but could also include other emergency services depending on the severity of the incident, such as the police. 

In addition to an emergency response, the monitoring company will also carry out the agreed protocol with the business site, such as contacting key individuals about the incident. 

Get in touch 

A fire alarm monitoring company, therefore, have a very important role in protecting sites and businesses with a monitoring contract in place. Not only can they improve the overall safety of a site and increase the protection of employees and visitors, but they can also reduce false alarms, improve business productivity and save the emergency services valuable time and money.

If you’re interested in a new monitoring contract, get in touch. We can set up a new contract for you or transfer you over from a previous one.