Commercial Fires

9/7/2017 (Permalink)

The definition of commercial property is any building used to generate profit; however this can be expanded to cover other types of non-residential properties. Commercial properties include:

•  Office Buildings – including serviced offices.
•  Industrial Buildings – warehouses, distribution centers and garages.
•  Retail/Restaurants –  includes shopping centers, leisure facilities and pubs.
•  Other non-residential properties such as entertainment venues, hotels, nursing homes, medical and self-storage complexes, as well as many more

Legal requirements for commercial fire alarm systems

As you can imagine, there is a lot more legislation concerning the installation, placement, testing and maintenance to regulate fire alarms in commercial premises than in residential buildings. British Standards provide guidelines that should be complied with and failure to do so is seen as a breach of a responsibility towards safety and can be punishable by law.

Fire alarms systems play such a key safety role in commercial buildings and there are a lot of lives potentially at steak. If the fire alarm systems are not sufficient then harsh penalties can be given, including hefty fines and in the case of extreme negligence, this can even result in imprisonment if lives are lost as a result of an ineffective approach to fire safety.

In addition if a fire does occur in commercial premises insurance policies may be voided if it can be proved that the fire alarm and smoke detectors were ineffective.

For more information visit 

http://www.eurofireprotection.com/blog/differences-between-commercial-and-residential-fire-alarms/