If an Alarm Contractor Fails to Comply with the Mandatory Minimum Requirements of NFPA 72®, they may be a proximate cause of the damages sustained.
Against the foregoing backdrop, the most authoritative treatise in the country and around the world on Fire Protection and Fire Alarm Systems is NFPA 72® – National Fire Alarm and Signaling Code. It requires that all Fire Alarm Systems be properly designed, installed, programmed, inspected, tested, and maintained (ITM) by qualified persons as defined by NFPA 72. ® See www.nfpa.org
Given that, the scope of this work is performed by a Licensed Alarm Contractor, and the methods that they use are required to comply with the mandatory minimum requirements of NFPA 72, which includes but is not limited to the issuance of an NFPA 72® Inspection Report. Additionally, the National Electrical Code (NEC), NFPA 70®, contains requirements that the Alarm Contractor must comply with.
In sum, NFPA 72® has been adopted by either the building and/or fire code in every state of the United States, so it is uniformly considered to be a statutory duty. Accordingly, failure of a Licensed Alarm Contractor to meet NFPA 72® not only violates the Fire Code, but it can be a proximate cause of the damages sustained in any Commercial or Household occupancy.
By way of example, if a Fire occurs in an occupancy that has a Central Station Monitored Fire Alarm System with Common Area Smoke Detectors, the expectation is that the fire alarm system Smoke Detectors will detect the Fire and the Fire Alarm Control Unit (FACU) will notify the Central Station, which in turn is required to notify the Fire Department.
Simplified, the theory may be that, but for the Fire Alarm System failing to activate during the early stages of the fire and notifying the Central Station, the damages sustained would have been significantly minimized by the responding Firefighters through their Suppression efforts. Simplified, many factors can cause a fire alarm system to fail. These can include, but are not limited to:
Notwithstanding there are many things that can negatively impact on the reliability of a Fire Alarm System to perform in intended function during an emergency but in order for the system to be reliable it is mission critical that each aspect of the system be provided by an Alarm Contractor who has specialized education, skill, knowledge, training and experience in NFPA 72, UL Standards, and Nationally Recognized Industry Standards and Best Practices. Moreover, the system must be provided in accordance with the requirements of the (AHJ), the Authority Having Jurisdiction, usually the Fire Official. An alarm contractor must receive approval for new installations, additions to the system, and/or replacement of the Fire Alarm Control Unit (FACU) from the Authority Having Jurisdiction before the work is performed, which often requires compliance with the plans and permitting process.
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