Fire can be one of the most serious causes for loss of property and life. Early detection and notification can mean the difference between catching the fire early when it is still in its infancy and losing everything you have to a fully erupted ball of destruction. In a commercial building the smoke and heat detectors that we install will provide early notification to you and our central monitoring station so we can call the local fire department so you don't have to. Even if you are not present when it happens. Our commercial fire alarm systems are a combination of manual and active systems providing detection and notification devices to alert the occupants of the building of the presence of smoke and/or fire. Additionally these systems have automatic means to alert the central station for dispatching emergency responders. The earlier the fire fighters get there, the less damage from smoke, fire and water there will be.

Once we have some basic fire detection goals, which are influenced by the property owner, the local building code enforcement officer, the local fire chief, the state fire marshal and lastly the NFPA (National Fire Protection Agency), the administering authority of NFPA 72 which is the National Fire Alarm Code, a system design drawing is generated and approved by the authorities having jurisdiction. That system design is comprised of a specified number of initiating devices (smoke and heat detectors, pull stations, and sprinkler pressure and flow switches) and notification appliances such as horns and strobes, bells, sirens or other tactile or visible outputs. The fire alarm control panel (FACP) is the device that monitors, supervises and causes the power supplies to operate the audible and visual notification appliances. Attached to the FACP is a backup power source (batteries are most typical but generators may be used in some circumstances) to continue to provide the life safety aspects of these fire alarm systems.

Under certain circumstances, fire alarm systems may also have an Emergency Voice Alarm Communication systems or EVAC systems that provide preconfigured voice instructions to occupants in some cases and live "real time" instructions in other cases. Usually, these instructions are provided in more than one language and they direct occupants to specific places within the building as opposed to driving all of the occupants of the building out into the street.