Fire can ravage your business, as more than seventy-five percent of businesses that have a serious fire occur, usually go out of business within three years after reopening. Businesses that prepare fire plans, train employees, and call for professional help immediately, stand a much better chance of a full recovery from a serious fire. If you prepare a fire prevention plan, practice it on a regular basis, and update it when needed, you can be on the alert for signs or situations that may arise, and stop them before they get out of hand.
If you want to take more in-depth precautions, you will need the help of professionals. For instance, you should have an electrician come to check your wiring for frayed cords, cracked receptacles, or switches that use electricity. If you have a security advisor, they may suggest installing a closed-circuit camera in certain location to help detect fires early.
Computer Backups
The files on your backup drive can be just as vulnerable to fire as your main systems. Therefore, as a business owner, you need to do everything you can to protect all of your business files.
A. Disconnect Your Backup Data
When you own a business, you want to be sure to back up your data to a media that you can physically remove from the premises. It might be very inconvenient to do so, but it is a good habit to store your data in a fireproof safe, or better yet, offsite in a safety deposit box. This way, if a fire does occur you will still have your data backed up in a secure location offsite. You can also go one-step further and create several generation of local and off-site backups. This will allow you to restore your data if a fire renders your machines unusable.
B. Backup Your Data to the Cloud
Instead of backing your data up locally, you might want to consider using the cloud. Generally, cloud backup runs as a backup service that your system does not view as an attached or network drive. You need to understand that most cloud backup services will automatically synchronize to update your data on a periodic basis, which you can set. If you are located in an urban area, this may not be your best option. If your local drive becomes compromised during a fire, you should disable the syncing service to prevent the data that is compromised that can overwrite your good data backup. Even after taking these precautions, your backup needs a backup plan for your business. If you do not have a backup plan for your data, you can consider the information on your system to be lost. You should be sure to back up your data, in a readable format, when you need it the most.
When you consider your data backups, you should be able to answer the following questions in a positive way to protect your business from data loss:
1. Do you have multiple backups of all of your business files and data, which will include older versions of your data?
2. If you are using physical backup drives, do you have multiple copies on different drives?
3. If you use a USB drive, do you keep your data disconnected from your computer?
4. Do you keep your local backups separated physically and geographically from the main copy on your system?
5. Do you test your backups on a regular basis to restore your data and check if they are working properly?
6. Do you have a reasonable number of backups, which include the last thirty days?
Types of Internal/External Sprinkler Systems
During a wildfire, windows can allow airborne debris and firebrands into your business. Convective heat and embers can find a way into your business as well, such as gaps around doors. The interior of your business can ignite without the exterior igniting. If your building has exterior components such as overhangs and recessed niches, which are combustible, can trap embers and firebrands and then lead to the ignition of your building.
If your building does catch fire, it can endanger buildings that are nearby and it can contribute to the spread of the fire. By installing interior and exterior sprinkler systems in your business, you can prevent a fire from igniting. In the next few subsections, we will discuss different types of fire sprinkler systems, so that you can determine which type is best suited for your commercial building.
A. Pre-action Fire Sprinkler Systems
This type of fire sprinkler system uses pressurized air, which allows water to pass through whenever the smoke alarm goes off. Pre-action fire sprinkler systems require two triggers to start the water flow, which helps greatly, as you can set the system to prevent water from spouting, in cases of mechanical failure or a false alarm. These systems are good to use in businesses that have high value items, such as data centers and libraries, in which water would destroy.
B. Dry Pipe Fire Sprinkler Systems
Dry pipe sprinkler systems are comparable to the pre-action systems, as they both use pressurized air, which needs to escape in order to allow the water to flow through the pipe. This causes a minute delay in the water discharge, which is ideal to use for businesses that have low temperatures, so the pipes will not freeze. They also have a fast opening tool to release the air quickly and speed up the flow of water out of the pipe.
C. Wet Pipe Fire Sprinkler Systems
Wet pipe fire sprinkler systems have water in the pipes constantly, which allows for a quick reaction to a fire. This is also the most commonly used system in buildings, which is a more cost efficient and low maintenance system. An office building with very few floors and high-rises tend to use this type of fire sprinkler system.
D. Deluge Fire Sprinkler Systems
Deluge fire sprinkler systems are again comparable to the pre-action system, as they need a smoke alarm to set off the fire alarm. This type of system uses open nozzles, when there is a fire hazard present. These are good to have in businesses that have flammable liquids present that spill across the floor, such as buildings to contain many tanks or something like an industrial park.
E. Interior Fire Sprinkler Systems
Interior fire sprinkler systems are great at detecting a developing fire very quickly and automatically activating the system. They do not require someone to activate them and they can notify you, occupants, and the fire department, by a warning system, of a fire that is developing. You can install interior sprinklers during the construction of your business or to your existing business. If you have any type of enclose space, you may want to consider installing sprinklers in these spaces, giving additional protection in case the fire penetrates the exterior of your business.
You also need to consider water pressure for an interior sprinkler system to be effective. Many businesses connect to a municipal water supply to feed their interior sprinkler systems, and water pressure and supply must both be adequate, to run your interior sprinkler system. Many times, a wildfire will exhaust the available water pressure, and if your existing system is inadequate to supply the system, you might want to consider getting a pressurized holding take that is not connected to the municipal water supply.
F. Exterior Fire Sprinkler Systems
Exterior fire sprinkler systems saturate the exterior of your business to prevent fire from taking hold, in case of a wildfire. They are installed commonly on the roof of a business or underneath the eves of the building. You can install them during new construction or on your existing building. Exterior sprinkler systems do not require much energy to activate automatically or manually. They can also come with a warning system that will notify all occupants of your business, as well as the fire department, of a fire that is developing. You can also install landscape sprinklers to provide some protection from an encroaching wildfire. The great thing is that you can combine both exterior and interior fire sprinkler systems for the best protection from a fire of any type.
Fire Alarm Systems and Fireproof Safes
A. Fire Alarm Systems
Fire alarm systems provide an audible sound to inform all occupants in a building that there is a fire and to evacuate the building. Standards require all businesses and public buildings to have a fire alarm system on their buildings. This normally, does not apply to a residence.
A fire alarm system contains some type of fire sensor to detect the presence of fire in a building, including smoke and heat detectors. Place them throughout your building and connect them to a main alarm panel by special cables, which connect to a set of speakers, giving an audible alarm to alert occupants inside and outside of a building. The ideal placement of the main alarm panel would be in a twenty-four hour control or security room. The panel will indicate the location of the fire so that coordination of the evacuation process can take place by a competent person. If you locate the panel somewhere else, you can use a repeater panel placed in a secure room of the building.
You can also use other devices manually, in case someone in the building spots a fire. A manual call point is a small button, normally placed near exits. A response indicator is a small red light, normally placed right outside of doors that will light up if a fire activates a smoke detector, which alerts firefighters to the location of the fire.
Upon receiving verification of a fire, the main fire panel must be able to tell someone about the fire, as this is its primary mission. The main fire panel can alert people about a fire in the building in several ways, including various audible and visual devices, which are the main types of alarm output. Bells are appropriate for most buildings and are the most common with the familiar sound that we all know. Chimes are used in places where a quiet alarm is the most appropriate, such as a doctor's office. Horns are well suited to areas where a loud alarm is a requirement, such as a library that might need concealment. Speakers can sound an alarm with a reproducible signal, such as a recorded message that broadcasts for a good distance. They are well suited to multi-story buildings, in which phased evacuation is preferred. Emergency public address announcements usually use a speaker to gain the attention of a crowd.
There are many visual alert devices, such as a strobes or flashing lights. In places where the ambient noise levels are high enough that people cannot hear them or they are hearing impaired, a visual alert is a requirement by the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The main fire panel can also include other features such as shutting down computers, electrical equipment, and air handling fans, or even chemical movement through the piping of the system, where an alarm sounds. The main fire panel can activate fans to extract the smoke from a building or activate the discharge of gaseous fire extinguishing systems, such as a pre-action sprinkler system.
B. Fireproof Safes
A fireproof safe cabinet protects your content by posing resistance from fire for a set amount of time. You should consider a long-term fireproof safe that will protect objects that you cannot replace. A good fireproof safe is made of quality fire resistant materials and foam to protect it from heat. The crucial aspects of a typical fireproof safe will include a solid and thick metal body and combination locks. The casing of the fireproof safe must consist of at least one and a half inches thick and must provide a maximum of two hours of protection from fire and water to be effective. Therefore, it is crucial that you choose a suitable fireproof safe based on the items that you want to protect from a fire.
A fireproof safe deposit box is perfect for storing valuable information and can easily bolt the top of the floor, on a wall, or built into an existing safe to give you added protection. You could also use a fireproof wall depository box, for a business that needs to accept payment after business hours. They are easy to bolt to the outside of a building, are low profile, secure, come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and lock options.
