Installing fire protection system in your business is imperative to keeping everyone safe. You may think that because you’ve never had a fire or even been at risk of one, that it is not that important but you would be wrong. If you don’t have something installed, you need to immediately call one of the fire protection companies in your area and set up an appointment to have a commercial fire alarm or some sort of system set up by them. Not only are you breaking the law by not having a system but you are putting yourself and your employees in danger. Here are some of the benefits of fire protection systems to help you understand why fire protection companies are so important to you as a business owner.

Early Detection
People need to know at the first sign of heat or smoke that something is wrong. Installing a smoke detector will do just that. While a smoke detector in and of itself is not a fire suppression system, it is an alarm and sometimes this is all that’s needed to get people moving. A smoke or heat detector contains sensors that specifically look for increased levels of heat and smoke. If there is a fire, no matter how small, if the detector senses that it is hotter or this is unidentified smoke in the air, it will set off the alarms all around the building, alerting everyone that somewhere in the building there is heat and smoke. Early detection of fire can save lives. If the fire is small enough when it starts out, a fire extinguisher may do the job but without the detector, no one may even realize that there is a fire until it is too big to contain. Early detection also gives people enough time to get out of the building when necessary.

Suppression
Sometimes, you can connect your smoke detector or fire alarm system to some sort of fire suppression system like a sprinkler or foam sprayer. When the alarm goes off, it will automatically trigger the fire suppression system and the sprinklers or whatever you have installed will turn on in the whole building so that wherever the fire is, it will be put out right away. This may work in a hotel or restaurant but you probably don’t want something like in an office building where there is a lot of expensive electrical equipment and important documents that could be ruined by water. However, you will want to set up some sort of suppression system in order to further protect your employees. There are systems that will spray out a layer of foam which make be annoying to clean up but it will put on the fire by snuffing out the oxygen from under the foam and you will avoid the water damage that a sprinkler system could make.

Insurance
If you do not have a fire safety system set up by professional fire protection companies, insurance companies will probably charge you extremely high premiums to cover your business. Some insurance companies won’t cover you at all if you are not doing something to protect yourself against fire damage. You will be considered a liability to them and they won’t want to take on the responsibility. In some states, it’s actually illegal for an insurance company to cover a business that has not invested in fire prevention systems.

So, do yourself a favor, call some fire protection companies and find out what needs to happen in order to get something set up in your business. Then get some insurance. Even if you that is a little more money out of your pocket, it is nothing compared to what you would pay if a fire did start and even worse, if people were injured or killed. The peace of mind that it will offer you and your employees is well worth the cost. You can rest assured that should the worst take place, you will not lose your business and you would have help by the insurance company to rebuild what was damaged. You can’t just hope for the best. In most cases, hope is a great thing to have, but not when it comes to fire.