A Fire Protection System is the most important and reliable asset a business owner or homeowner can purchase to protect lives and assets if a fire should begin. Majority of fire occurrences are unintentional and therefore cannot be planned as to where nor when they will begin. Which is why the best solution an owner can provide for their safety, and the safety of others, is to prepare for these instances by being proactive and installing fire protection systems.
According to NFPA , “Fire sprinklers are effective at controlling 96% of fires in which they operated.”
SOURCE: NFPA – US Experience with Sprinklers. Download the full report.
When am I required to install a Fire Protection System?
In some areas, the local or state code may dictate that these systems be installed. In other instances, your insurance provider may require the installation of these system in order to provide you certain rates or coverages. Whether it is mandated by code, required by insurance or is the proactive thinking on your part, it is still the best life safety measure you can take for early warning detection and life saving suppression to avoid the threats of a fire.
Let’s explore the top 5 reason to install a fire protection system into your place of business or home.
Gain Valuable Time
With the proper installation of fire alarm devices and fire sprinkler systems, the presence of smoke and increases in heat can be detected early. It is this early detection that provides the needed Time to the occupants in order to find an exit route and get outside of the building to safety. When combined with a monitoring service to a central station, the local fire department can be promptly notified and dispatched to your location to investigate and take necessary actions.
The Fire Stops Here!
Smoke and Heat detectors are vitally important in detecting the early stages of a possible fire. And with audible signals and strobes installed, together they can alert people of an emergency and to quickly get out of the building to safety. But they cannot help extinguishing the fire. With the addition of a proper fire sprinkler system installed, these fires can be contained, suppressed and even extinguished to help keep the loss of property & products to a minimum and ultimately save people’s lives.
Protect your Investments
There are a variety of fire suppression systems that can be installed to custom fit your space. These systems provide reliable protection to products and costly equipment from being damaged or even destroyed by the fire ensuring the protection of your valuable assets. You have spent a lot of money on sensitive equipment such as computer hardware and state of the art servers. Or you have medical and surgical equipment in your place of business. Perhaps you have newly furnished your space or if you even store precious commodities on pallets in rack storage. Regardless of what equipment you have in your space, you spent a lot of money and time to get it there, and so its worth protecting it from being damaged or consumed by a fire.
Get Back to Normal Life Quickly
Fires that take place in a building which does not have a fire protection system, can end with closing their doors temporarily if not permanently depending on the damage. Lost time, lost income, lost equipment and even loss of life can occur. With the installation of a fire protection system, losses are diminished, and the amount of downtime is reduced. In many cases where the fire set off a sprinkler system and is extinguished quickly, the system can typically be reset and back in service within a few hours, allowing your company to immediately resume production again. They can allow the occupants of a high-rise apartment building or school dormitory to return to sleep in their own bed that same night after the fire had occurred. All this while keeping their minds at ease that they are still safe and fully protected should a fire occur again. It is not only piece of mind these systems offer, but also the ability to quickly resume normal life prior to when the fire began.
Faster than your Local Fire Department
Although fire alarm system will alert people to get to safety and, when properly monitored, will send out an early signal to the fire department. It still takes on average 5-10 minutes for a fire department to be dispatched and arrive onsite to begin fighting the fire. When they do arrive, if there is an active fire, they will dispense about 125gpm (gallons per minute) into the space to extinguish the fire. A fire sprinkler, however, will dispense on average approximately 1/5th of that amount, resulting in a lot less clean up and water damage.
In cases of an event with a small fire in facilities that are protected by a fire sprinkler system, the heat from the fire fuses a link in a fire sprinkler head located nearest the heat source. Water will travel through the piping system and, within seconds, dispense through the sprinkler head directly onto the fire. More often than not, these fires are extinguished within a few minutes. Is that reason alone worth the peace of mind Fire Protection systems have to offer?
Whether you are installing a fire suppression because it is require by code or recommended by insurance providers. Or whether it r is simply decided upon by a proactive business owner or homeowner looking to protect their people, property and products. A Fire Protection System is by far the best investment that anyone could have to prevent a fire catastrophe from occurring.
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