3 Essential Things That Can Prevent Fires at Your Business

Unless you run a restaurant that has its share of hot ovens and frying oil, the thought of potential fire in your building probably rarely crosses your mind – and even if you do run a restaurant, you may think your chances of dealing with a fire are slim. You probably have more to do every day to run your business than you can really manage, and so you think that worrying about hypothetical situations is simply a waste of time. But it only takes one small mistake to turn a lifelong dream – the business you’ve worked so hard to build – into ash. Even with fire insurance, it may take too long and require too much from you to start over. While you’re waiting for the insurance money to come in and for the construction workers to rebuild, regular customers will move on to your competitors. By the time you could possibly reopen, your dreams of success are long gone.

It doesn’t take much to put in that extra effort to prevent fires. You and your staff need only follow a few simple precautions, and with the assistance of a top-notch security company, you’ll have all you need to reduce your chances of ever dealing with the life-destroying consequences of fire.

A Comprehensive Fire Alarm System

When it comes to protecting your commercial property from fire, simple overhead smoke detectors won’t do, no matter how small your building. A security company will be able to walk you through the latest in fire prevention technology. Based on what’s right for your business, you may need overhead sprinklers, which perform better with monitoring devices to make sure they remain in their best shape even when not used for years or decades. A security company will also be able to install or update your pull stations and horns or strobes throughout the store. Pair the system with a point ID feature, and you and the firefighters will know immediately where the fire has started for the best chance at minimizing the damage.

Enforcing Smoking Rules

Depending on the state in which you operate, it’s possible it’s not even legal to smoke indoors in a public venue. Regardless, you and your employees should work hard to make sure smoking rules – either legally mandated or requested by the company – are enforced. Smokers should smoke a certain number of feet away from your building and only throw out their cigarettes in the designated receptacles. They should also make sure their cigarette butts are completely extinguished before they return inside. Still-lit cigarettes, smoking in improper locations and nearby flammable material are among the leading causes for accidental fires.

Regular Maintenance

No matter how up to date you think your fire alarm system is, it’s always going to go out of date. After years of sitting unused – at least you hope you never have to use it – parts may wear down and not work properly when you need them to. How will you know something’s failed? It’s not like you can run a test and turn the sprinklers on. If the building that houses your business is more than a few years old, work with a security system company to completely update your fire alarm system. More importantly, hire them to monitor and update your fire alarm system as needed so you won’t have to worry about it.

Fire prevention may not be on the top of your to-do list. That’s why you should rely on security system professionals who can do the worrying for you. Pair a comprehensive fire alarm system with a security system and you’ll both save money and streamline your security and disaster prevention process.

About the Author: Jacob Thomas owns several small businesses in the Indianapolis area. He thanks the products from http://www.circlecityalarm.com for helping prevent a large-scale fire at one of his retail locations.

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