Commercial fire suppression systems are governed by codes under the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) in the United States. While this is meant to ensure proper use and functionality of these systems, things can, of course, always go wrong. That’s why it’s crucial to make sure you perform regular maintenance and repairs on your fire suppression system if you’re a business owner or real estate property manager.
Whether it’s a broken fire sprinkler system or a faulty fire alarm service, that can be the difference between an accidental mishap and devastating disaster. Here are three convincing reasons you need to think about prevention.
1.) Common Occurrence: Fires happen everywhere, every day, without bias or exceptions. In 2010 alone fire departments responded to 1,200 fires in hospitals, according to the NFPA. The most common locations at risk for high-rise fires are apartments, hotels, offices, and facilities that care for the sick. Together these four areas accounted for about half of them. With so many different people in and out of commercial space on a day to day basis it’s difficult to keep track of everything and everyone. While many accidents can be avoided, some are bound to happen regardless. Make sure you’re prepared.
2.) Cost of Repair: Hiring professionals to come in and inspect, repair, and replace fire suppression systems can be a costly endeavor in itself, but the price will always be much cheaper than waiting until something happens and dealing with the aftermath. Hotel and motel fires alone rack up $76 million in property loss every year. If detection is able to provide a warning 10 to 15 minutes before the end of the incipient stage, the fire department should be able to limit damage regardless of suppression system activation or location of the fire.
3.) Loss of Life: Obviously the most important reason to ensure your fire safety precautions are working properly is the potential for human death. Unfortunately, not every death is preventable, but many fire-related ones are. If just a single life can be saved or kept out of serious harm’s way over the course of a fire suppression system’s lifetime, the money and time spent repairing and maintaining it is well worth it.
Most business owners and property managers assume that if a building has passed inspection everything must be fine. One would hope so, but that’s not always the case. Things can go haywire in the blink of an eye and unless there’s someone consistently monitoring it you could find yourself in a very serious situation, very quickly.
