Are You Aware of Your Facility’s Fire Safety Guidelines?

Fire SafetyService
Written By Shelley Moore

While having a fire detection system in place is commonplace in any facility, understanding the fire safety guidelines concerning testing and inspection can be challenging. Fire safety guidelines are frequently changing, so having someone familiar with the latest information is critical to ensuring the safety and wellbeing of your workplace. 

The National Fire Protection Association, or NFPA, has established a set of guidelines and standards that have been adopted by, or are being enforced by, the majority of authorities having jurisdiction over your facility (ie: fire department, building department, insurer, etc.). When this occurs, an adopted standard becomes part of that authority’s adopted codes. These standards are quite clear in regards to the required frequency of inspection and testing of your fire alarm panels, smoke detectors, heat detectors, duct detectors, audible and visual signals and other components to the system. NFPA is also clear that it is the owner’s sole responsibility for maintaining their fire alarm systems and subsequently adhering to these adopted standards. As such, having someone you can trust who knows these standards, as well as an experienced technician who can monitor the fire detection system and perform the necessary inspections is critical. 

As a life, safety, and security company, Communication Company highly recommends consulting all authorities having jurisdiction over your facility (fire department, building department, insurer, etc.) to find out exactly what they require. Furthermore, we would even advise to obtain confirming documentation from said authorities to help avoid the potential of any future liability.

According to the NFPA, manual testing on a fire alarm system should be performed annually or more frequently where required by the authority having jurisdiction. Detector sensitivity should be checked within one year of installation, as well as every other year to follow, and should always be performed by a factory-trained or certified authority. Failure to adhere to any of these guidelines could result in liability issues for the facility in question and/or preventable injury or death.

While staying up to date with fire inspection and monitoring guidelines can be tedious, time consuming and costly if done by someone unfamiliar with the industry, maintaining appropriate fire safety measures can be quickly and easily achieved through the use of experienced personnel, such as those employed with Communication Company. We will be more than willing to explain in greater detail and/or even establish documentation illustrating what NFPA requires for your particular facility free of charge. 

Our goal is simply to protect our customers while providing the best service that we can, and we certainly urge anyone with questions to contact us at 574.299.0020 or email one of our service consultants for more information. 

Service Contract Sales Team

Shelley Moore
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