By Lisa Korklan, VP of Marketing
Crowded homes filled with delicious aromas from the oven, lit with the glow of candles and warmth from the fireplace. Stores fully stocked from floor to ceiling. Thanksgiving signals the beginning of the holiday season. Although the potential for a fire is far from our thoughts, we really have many reasons to appreciate people who work in the fire and life safety professions. Perhaps we should all be most thankful for the folks who monitor and dispatch alarms to first responders, saving lives and property.
Have you considered their essential contributions which are often overlooked? With never-ending technology advances, their responsibilities continue to grow. They monitor a whole range of digital information including access control, video cameras, HVAC, emergency communications, fire and life safety alarms and other building management systems. Sometimes they sit at their consoles or they may also be mobile, but one thing is certain: the safety and security of their facility depends on their ability to recognize and filter out the most important alarms.
Technology exponentially improves the speed and amount of information that can be delivered to the dispatchers. but it also exponentially increases their workload. Fortunately, the flexibility of a well-designed alarm management software system can prevent operator overload in a wide variety of ways.
Helping a busy dispatcher recognize critical fire alarms amid the troubles and supervisories is possible with the right software system. Sending non-fire alarm events to the most appropriate responders helps to ensure that fire alarms are easily recognized by the dispatchers when they happen.
For inspections, construction, known storms and other situations that cause constant trouble signals, a well-designed software system can enable dispatchers to temporarily suppress those signals to prevent them from overwhelming a high priority fire or life safety event.
When dispatchers do receive a fire alarm, they shouldn’t need to click on many screens, decipher arcane codes, or waste essential time trying to figure out what, when and where the signal is coming from. It should all be on a single, easy to read screen with maps, icons and dispatch information, right at their fingertips because with a fire, every moment counts. Other capabilities such as emergency communications, a full library of graphics and audibles, group acknowledge and real time notes all help these dedicated dispatchers, who often work on holidays so that we can all safely enjoy ours.
If your facility’s fire alarm dispatch system is difficult to operate and overloads their already demanding work, thank them by installing a Keltron LS 7000 Alarm Management System. They’ll be more accurate, faster and less stressed and your facility will improve its ability to respond quickly to fire and life safety events. Call or email us to learn more →
