How Automatic Fire Suppression Could Save Your Manufacturing Facility Millions

Your manufacturing plant provides a lot to the community. Along with providing employment opportunities, the goods produced in the plant are sold locally, and in some cases even internationally. Keeping your employees along with your facility safe must always be a priority, not only to preserve life but to preserve your bottom line, as well. That's why you should include methods for automatic fire suppression in your planning.

What Fire Can Do in a Business or Municipal Setting

2015 was not a good year for the citizens living in Canada's Nunavat region when it came to fire safety. During that year, the Peter Pitseolak High School in Cape Dorset was destroyed by a fire. The damages were estimated at $26 million. Over in Iqaluit, over $1 million in damages due to fire was done to the new airport. A fire at the Pangnirtung power plant caused more than $3 million in damages. Between business related and residential events, the amount of fire damage in the region exceed $44 million. Down south of the border in the USA, it's estimated that firefighters respond to 37,000 fires at industrial or manufacturing facilities every year.

How Does This Relate to Your Manufacturing Facility?

In each of these situations, fire safety measures were in place. They varied from fire alarm systems that alerted people to exit when the fires were detected, to overhead sprinkler systems that smothered the flames while everyone got out. That saved lives. Automated systems curbed some of the damage, preventing things from getting worse. The right approach to fire safety will do the same thing for your business.

Your Company and the Raw Materials

Consider the raw materials inventory you keep on hand. Without it, producing the finished goods needed to fill your customer orders is impossible. Consider how the right approach to fire suppression would protect those materials from damage. A clean agent fire suppression system can be discharged without causing damage to the materials proper and still help kill any fire that broke out in the warehouses where you store those raw materials.

Your Supply of Finished Goods

You have warehouse space set aside for finished goods that are intended to fill current and future orders. What happens if a fire breaks out and there is no means of bringing it under control? Would you be able to replace those finished goods quickly and still get them to your customers on time? In many cases, the answer is no. A combination of the right fire alarm equipment in Toronto paired with a fire suppression system would keep the damage to a minimum and ensure you could still honor your commitments to those clients.

Goods in Process

Don't overlook the importance of preventing fires from damaging the goods currently being processed on your production lines. Those areas must also be protected with automatic fire suppression systems, especially when you consider that most fires in manufacturing facilities begin with either heating equipment or industrial equipment that gives off sparks. Individual units can be affixed on or in heavy equipment that deploy at the very first sign of fire, keeping it from spreading to any other machinery or product. Or, you may choose to augment your fire alarms in Toronto with an automated clean agent system that can cover large, enclosed areas without causing damage to equipment, people, or products. If a fire should break out on the production floor, the system will activate without the need for any human intervention, so that employees can exit to safety immediately. Everyone gets out without injury, your goods in process are saved, and it will take a minimum of cleanup before your production can start up again.

Take a fresh look at your current fire prevention and suppression methods. Are they really enough to protect you, your employees, and your operation? If not, today is the day to contact a professional and determine what additional protections would best serve your business. Once they are in place, the chances of sustaining a major loss due to fire are greatly reduced.