How Will Volatile Weather Affect Your Integrated Fire Life Safety Systems — and What Can You Do?

We’re living in an age of increasingly traumatic weather events. In the past two decades, a staggering rise in adverse weather effects is linked to 1.23 million global deaths and more than $2.97 trillion in economic losses.

So, it’s natural to be concerned about wildfires, floods, drought, or earthquakes damaging your business, but even thunderstorms can affect your basic protection systems. What are the potential effects of weather on your integrated fired life safety systems? And with the risks inherent to today’s volatile weather patterns, what can you do to protect important business infrastructure?

Weather and your fire sprinklers

Global climate change creates a volatile environment and extreme weather. From scorching heat and drought to freezing winters and violent hurricanes, drastic weather changes are expected to continue — and continue getting worse — in the coming years. With environmental disruption come unfamiliar weather conditions for which you — and your business — may not be prepared. Most Texans weren’t worried about frozen, or bursting, water pipes prior to last winter’s historic freeze. And damaged water pipes can disrupt critical fire life safety systems.

Water sprinklers are essential to a complete, effective fire life safety system, and frozen or broken pipes interfere with sprinkler function. Southern Californians don’t typically worry about freezing weather, but late last year, the L.A. Times reported on a cold snap that raised some concerned eyebrows. California already has its fair share of “normal” weather worries with the potential to affect fire sprinkler systems.

Every year, drought creates dry conditions to fuel wildfires further exacerbated by Santa Ana winds to wreak havoc in California and beyond. Outage notifications from Southern California Edison come with increasing frequency and compound concerns about the efficacy of fire life safety equipment for protecting your business. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) spells out the potentially grim result, “At that point, the building contains a compromised sprinkler system and is no longer protected at the level that is expected while the system is in service.”

Can thunderstorms affect your alarm systems?

Thunderstorms and lightning strikes are also more frequent — and more volatile. Just last month, a single Southern California storm recorded  4,000 lightning strikes. Lightning strikes increase the risk of fire, of course, but they can also affect the delicate electronics of your company’s fire alarm system. Power surges can overload your alarm system, and power outages can shut down your entire building. But you can mitigate these risks by working closely with your fire safety vendor.

Professional installation of fire safety equipment should include surge protectors on the circuits of your primary fire alarm panel and on each connection from the panel to an alarm initiation device, including pull stations and smoke detectors. Regular inspection and testing will ensure your battery backups are fully charged and ready to go to work in case of a power outage. All these mitigation efforts should be included in your life safety strategy. Maintenance and service agreements with a reputable fire life safety vendor are your best bet for protecting your business and keeping your safety systems ready for volatile weather.

Protecting your integrated fire life safety systems from unpredictable weather

Predicting the weather is easier than it used to be, but until we learn to control it, protection and damage prevention are the best approach to natural disasters. Regular maintenance and inspection ensure your fire life safety systems are in shape to protect your business — and its people — when you need them most. Benefits of a regular inspection service include:

  • Reduced maintenance costs

  • Increased compliance with fire safety rules

  • Reduced number of reportable incidents that could generate costly fines

  • Possible insurance discounts

  • Prevention of property loss

  • Peace of mind and a safe workplace for you and your employees.

TRL Systems is celebrating 40-years of service as leaders in integrated fire life safety and security systems for small and large companies throughout Southern California and surrounding areas. TRL Systems provides quality consultation, installation, and maintenance of fire life safety systems for organizations in education, government, healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing, and transportation. Contact us today at 1-800-266-1392 or via email at fire@TRLsystems.com.

Younan Bakhus