Fire Alarms that Monitor, Warn, and Activate

One of the required obligations in owning a commercial building is to have a fire alarm system. A commercial building can be an office building, warehouse, retail store, shopping mall or any building that looks to serve the public with services. The fire alarm system must function as a monitoring device which scouts the entire commercial area for fire, a warning system which alerts those within the building of a fire, and a control panel. Systems will vary from one another in features offered, but traditionally they will be required to have the former three components. The system is designed to detect, sound, and notify occupants of a fire threat that is either within their own building or nearby.

 

Common Features of Commercial Alarm Systems

 

Commercial fire alarms will have both fire and smoke detectors connected to the control panel of the system, so that when the heat and smoke levels reach a certain point, the alarm will sound. A lot of newer systems also come with a temperature monitoring option, which will signal if the temperature in the building becomes too high. In addition to this, manual boxes will be installed around the property that can be activated by any person in the building. Either the manual box will need to have a glass pane shattered, or a lever will need to be pulled. When one of these manual boxes are activated, a signal is sent to the monitoring station which then alerts local fire authorities. Finally, a commercial building may also opt to have a sprinkler system put in place to help lower the temperatures and limit the size of fire. Most commercial companies who want to minimize damage and cost will have sprinkler systems.