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More on should you care how your central station handles power loss signals

from Sept 27, 2013

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Ken;

One of the best reqasons to monitor and REPORT power failure to the customer is not for the widespread power outtage or the outtage on the street when the monitoring station calls the subscriber to say :" We recorded a POWER LOSS at your location" but rather the inadvertent human error power loss caused by another tradesperson in the basement or the TELCO closet who needs ANOTHER OUTLET. Unplugs the transformer and goes along his (her) merry way.

` These types of power outages can be devastating at closing time for a business or in a residence when the LO BATT signal kicks in. (Emergency servic call at 9:00 PM?????

Notification in a timely manner of the loss of power allows the homeowner or business owner to take action immediately and rectify the situation. (Tell the tradesperson to PUT THE TRANSFORMER BACK.... NOW....

That's my 2 cents for today...

Joel Kent

FBN

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More on Texas fire alarms from Sept 30, 2013

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Dear Ken and all:

There is no confusion, in Texas, on the fire alarm standards or codes.  If one has to ask, or is confused, they have no business installing any life safety device.

Confusion only occurs when the AHJ is more aware of suppression then they are of detection.  I have never had a problem after discussing any situation with the AHJ if you know the standards and codes and which ones are currently adopted.  The most important thing to remember is there can be and are many AHJ’s on any particular job.  The homeowner and/or the building owner are one as well (there is one exam question answer for you that is always asked).   

Everything is regulated by the Texas Department of Insurance and very well presented on their website.

Theodore (Ted) DeMatteo, CPP, CEO/President

Intercontinental Security Services, Inc.

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Hi Ken;

     What really saddens me about all of this about fire alarms is this:  As an industry, we follow the codes to keep people safe from fire, that being residential or commercial.  Sometimes the code as it would apply to a particular structure is unclear.  If we ask for advice from a fire marshall, he (not wanting to get pinned down as being incorrect) will often throw it back in our laps and say "you figure it out."  I no longer accept that argument.  I propose the specs for a fire job to the LAHJ.  If I have a question about something in particular, I ask "what would be more pleasing to you?  A or B?  He has to decide, since ultimately it is he who signs off on it.  

      But then it gets worse.  I'm yet to look at a single job where I sit back and say " Wow, I can retire off the profits from this job."  It just doesn't happen.  Yet the insurance companies will gladly pay a fire investigator way more than we could ever make in profits from that job, to say that "if that detector had been placed here, instead of there, it would have saved $150,000.00 in damage."  That is such garbage.  We install fire protection for life safety, not the safety of property.  Provided there was no malice or plain ineptness on the part of the installing company, the vast majority of law suits pertaining to losses in a fire are all about subrogation.  It's the deep pockets theory.  If you sue everyone involved with the construction of a place that later is damaged by fire, chances are you will collect a little something from EVERYONE who has insurance.  I would gladly accept responsibility if one of my systems actually caused the structure to catch fire and some culpability if my system did not work as it was designed and installed to work.  Short of that, why should I even have to worry about being sued if a building happens to catch fire?  I thought that was why building owners paid for their own insurance, in case they suffer a loss.  But it is THEIR insurance company, not the building owner who initiates a suit against the fire protection installing company.  To me, that's like being sued because a house that you installed a security system in gets burglarized.  I tell my customers all the time, security systems can't prevent a burglary.  They can only help to limit the amount of the loss.  That is why I tell my customers to practice good crime prevention techniques as well as use their alarm systems always.

John from NJ

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