When a tenant is looking for space, fire sprinklers probably won’t make the top ten list of their space criteria, but if you plan to host many people in your space at once, cook, utilize or store potentially flammable materials, you absolutely should be thinking about this critical building system. Some commercial buildings have fire sprinklers and others don’t. The necessity to have a fire suppression system is determined by code related to the building’s zoning and certificate of occupancy—what the building is built to do.
Why are fire sprinklers needed? Fire sprinkler systems provide a critical element of safety for occupants of buildings. Sprinklers are designed to detect heat from a fire and automatically activate, providing a flow of water that is intended to slow or extinguish a fire. By the time a sprinkler system detects enough heat to activate, a fire may already be well underway. The sprinkler can provide enough early suppression to allow building occupants to safely evacuate the building before the fire spreads or gets worse. In addition, a sprinkler system can reduce the severity of a fire enough to allow firefighters easier and safer access to the affected area.
The National Fire Protection Association or NFPA sets codes and standards to prevent fire deaths and property loss. NFPA 13 is the industry benchmark for the design and installation of automatic fire sprinkler systems. It is important to note that local municipalities may have different requirements and you can contact the Suffolk County Fire Marshal’s Office at
https://www.suffolkcountyny.gov/Departments/FRES/Fire-Marshals-Office
email [email protected]
What is an Ansul system? The term gets thrown around a lot especially in the restaurant industry. Ansul is actually a brand of special hazard fire protection products that includes a whole line of systems from fire extinguishers to sophisticated fire detection/suppression systems. Ansul considers themselves the industry standard in restaurant fire suppression when it comes to nozzles to distribute their wet fire suppression agent under the kitchen hood.
When it comes to fire safety, the best advice I can give is to always speak to an expert at a fire suppression company or in the municipality that you want to lease space in.
If you have any questions about this article or commercial real estate email [email protected] or let me know in the comments below. Don’t forget to subscribe to our email blasts!
Next week we’ll talk about Flood Zones.
Pingback: Wastewater - CAMCO Commercial Real Estate
I heard that my uncle recently moved into a wildfire-prone area because of how close it is to nature. I like your idea of investing in fire protection equipment such as sprinklers and extinguishers. This way, he’d be prepared when the inevitable happens in the future.