by Jason Beardsley
Choosing the Right Fire Alarm Company
Fire Alarm Systems are critical, especially for those of us with businesses in Southern California and are often afflicted with devastating wildfires each year. It is vital that your fire system works when danger is present or not. But searching for the right fire system can sometimes feel overwhelming. The first thing to remember is that the low bid may not be your best bid, nor may it be in your best interest with the products or services it offers. Using a licensed contractor who owns and operates their own central station and service staff is the safest route to take. Their ability to properly install and monitor your fire alarm system will determine the level of protection you will receive in the event of a fire, and will be the difference between sleepless nights or costly false alarm bills from your local Fire Department versus a secure building.
Do Your Homework
When calling different fire alarm system companies, find out which one has the most experience working with your local fire department. Typically these companies will have an extensive list of local references you can contact to learn more about their service and experience. You can continue your search with your local fire department to see a particular company has had a trend of false alarms being caused by the systems they install. Or you can cross check with your local better business bureau to research any complaints they may have against them.
However, hands-on experience is always best. If you know someone who has a fire alarm system set up by a particular company, ask if you can look it over to determine the quality and professionalism of the work. All wiring should be hidden and connections to any alarm panels and detectors must be neat and clean. If the system has wires hanging down or if panels put inside walls are not done neatly, this may be a sign of an uncaring fire alarm system installer.
Facts About Fire Alarm Monitoring
Fire Alarm Systems are often the main communication between your building and your local Fire Department. Without a monitoring service in place, Fire Departments would not know of any issues at the site unless someone calls it in. If you are planning to have a company monitor your fire alarm and include fire department notification in case of emergencies, you must verify the abilities of their monitoring office beforehand. Make sure the monitoring facility is equipped with the proper licenses necessary to handle such signals.
Fire alarm companies are required by law to keep records showing the time and date of each alarm notification received from their systems, the times the fire department was notified and the last time the system was inspected. All devices on that system must be inspected per the NFPA (National Fire Protection Agency) standard and if the fire alarm system is not inspected the alarm company can become liable for issues arising from not being inspected.
You may also want to check into the alarm company’s service personnel, making sure they possess the proper certifications and licenses to work on your fire alarm system. Many industry standards are in place to make sure alarm companies spend ample amount time training and certifying their personnel, thus insuring technicians are qualified to work on systems as important as fire alarms.
New ‘Alarming’ Trends
The old fire alarm code required the building owner to have two phones lines for their building, one of which was solely dedicated to the fire alarm system. However, with the tremendous advances in technology, this has changed. As a building owner, you may eliminate both phone lines if your local fire marshal has approved the new wireless fire alarm technology. This essentially saves YOU up to thousands of dollars annually and can often have an ROI within months of its installation.
Jason Beardsley, MBA, is the Branch General Manager with SDA Security. He can be reached at (800) 896-1144 or visit us at www.sdasecurity.com