Why professionals should complete fire alarms installation at your commercial property

Your fire alarm system is the first warning that many will get when there is a fire within a commercial property. These devices save hundreds of lives every day and can save some businesses from financial ruin when damage is kept to a minimum.

According to statistics from the Devon and Somerset Fire Brigade, the average cost to a commercial building is £58,100 and 75% of businesses don’t recover financially. Fire alarms are one of the best ways that you can protect your business from these devastating effects.

There are concerns that fire alarms installations aren’t always completed properly. Mistakes can be made by those who don’t have the skills or knowledge to install or locate the devices in the correct place.

The problems with incorrect fire alarm installations

There are two things that can happen when fire alarms installation is not done correctly. The first is that fire alarms do not activate when there is an emergency. This will delay the response of emergency services and can cause more damage to your property and assets.

As a result, your business can be placed at risk.

The second problem is that incorrectly installed or placed fire alarms can cause false alarms. According to statistics, an estimated £1 billion is wasted on false alerts from fire alarms. The worst-case scenario is that more than half of all call-outs are false alerts.

False alerts are often caused because there is a fire like phenomenon in the vicinity of the alarm. This could be someone smoking or cooking in a resting area. With proper fire alarms installation, these areas can be avoided.

The benefits of professional fire alarms installation

There are several benefits for your business when you have professional fire alarms installation. The first is that you might be able to benefit from better insurance premiums as there is less risk of a large-scale, high destruction fire due to early detection of fires on the premises.

In addition, should there be a fire, the damage to the business can be much less, providing an easier time for the business to recover.

You can also benefit because properly siting the fire alarms can result in fewer false alerts. Too many alerts can often result in complacency among staff who might ignore future real events until extensive damage has occurred.

An example of this happened in November 2019 at Bolton University when students thought that the fire alarm heard was another false alarm.

Finally, you can be sure that all the equipment is working perfectly. A fire alarm which is incorrectly installed and therefore does not work is practically useless and you might as well not have one.

What to expect with a professional fire alarms installation

A professional fire alarms installation has three phases. The first is a design phase where a team of designers will evaluate your business’ current fire alarm system, if applicable. This is to ensure that your premises are properly protected to British standards and this will incorporate your business’ latest fire risk assessment and health and safety policies.

The next stage is the installation. This is when a team of qualified and experienced team will ensure the system is installed in your premises to all requirements set out previously. Project managers should ensure that the completed solution is fit for purpose.

Conclusion

UK laws state that all commercial premises should have fire safety. Installing the equipment yourself can cause problems. For instance, the equipment could be incorrectly fitted causing equipment failures and possible false alerts. This can result in significant damage to your business if there is a fire on your premises.

When you have fire alarms installation done by a professional team, you can be sure that you are protecting your staff, customers and assets.