Commercial Fire Blog

One of the most important goals a Facility Manager can have is providing effective fire and life safety equipment and systems across all of your locations. Unfortunately, it can be a lot like trying to untangle a huge plate of pasta. There are tons of codes and regulations to follow, current and projected expenses to consider, and an accounting of what fire and life safety equipment and systems are present or missing here, there, everywhere! And in terms of cost, what’s your exposure? While the initial responsibility for meeting fire and life safety codes and regulations originated with the builders, that became your responsibility, as the Facility Manger, as soon as ownership changed hands. And that responsibility involves some sobering issues—protection of lives and property and avoidance of fines while keeping maintenance, repair, and replacement costs down.

Let a National Fire & Life Safety Provider Untangle Things for You.

Size Matters

A National Fire & Life Safety Provider can help you in many ways local or regional companies can’t. As the term implies, first and foremost they are “national”, meaning they have resources to deal with all of your locations. In order to do that, these companies have to have a large enough footprint to maintain offices all over the country, so they are typically much larger than local or regional providers. That size offers them a leg up with increased everything except price. They can buy in volume, holding down their costs, enabling them to pass these savings onto you. Their size also enables them to hire or contract with the best technicians in their respectful fields. Be it extinguishers, alarms, kitchen systems, emergency lighting, and more, they will typically have a wide array of expertise in the fields you need. That includes code experts, engineers, designers, and service techs thoroughly familiar with the fire and life safety industry.

Knowing the Codes

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) publishes reams of standards that are the basis for almost all fire and life safety codes, regulations, and laws in the United States. Their inspection, testing, and maintenance (ITM) standards involve numerous volumes—more than your average local shop will be familiar with. And that’s a big deal, because knowing what’s required is paramount to being compliant and avoiding fines, not to mention preventing the loss of life or property. With a National Fire & Safety Provider in your corner, you have someone to assume the responsibility for keeping you and your locations up to date on all codes through servicing, testing, and maintenance of all your fire and life safety equipment and systems.

Tracking Service, Assets, and Projected Spend

National Fire & Life Safety Providers typically have customer portal online that allows you

to see all kinds of information. From invoices and service reports to current/projected assets and spend forecasts, you will have all of this, and more, information at your fingertips. This eliminates paper trails, allowing you to easily reference and share things like service and inspection reports with AHJs or pertinent cost and asset reports with other people in your company. This is especially beneficial if you manage multiple locations, because National Fire & Life Safety Providers will keep track of everything, everywhere for you. You will have “one point of contact” who tracks everything for you versus multiple fire and life safety vendors who you’ll need to keep track of, which can quickly become overwhelming and a huge headache. This single point of contact has the resources to keep you and your fire and life safety equipment and systems up to date. They will also make planning and budgeting for maintaining all of this a breeze, so you can concentrate on your core business.