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On Feb. 22 in a Long Island, N.Y. mall, 26 people were sickened at a Legal Sea Foods restaurant and the 55-year-old restaurant manager died after being poisoned by the odorless, invisible gas. The cause was a leaky flue pipe in the water heater, according to CNN.

Just a day later, 21 people suffered carbon monoxide poisoning at a resort in Ogunquit, Maine. Fire Chief Mark O’Brien told the Portland Press Herald newspaper that the cause of the leak was a faulty ventilation pipe. He said tests at the InnSeason Resorts–The Falls at Ogunquit detected high levels of CO. “We could potentially have had 21 deaths here,” O’Brien told the paper.

A 2012 Maine law requires any new single-family dwelling, hotel, motel, inn, bed and breakfast, fraternity or sorority house, and dormitory to have CO detectors installed, the paper said. But the law has an exemption for homes or businesses that were constructed before Aug. 1, 2012, unless the building since then has been restored or converted to those uses. The resort in Ogunquit, built more than 20 years ago, wasn’t required to have CO detectors under the law, the paper reported.

The incident, in which seven of the inn’s guests were so sick they had to be hospitalized, has resulted in calls in Maine to expand the law to cover buildings that currently are exempted. However, the hospitality industry has raised concerns about the cost of retrofitting hotel rooms, according to the paper.

Rich Brobst Jr., president of the Maine Burglar & Fire Alarm Association and a NICET IV-level master electrician with Falmouth, Maine-based Protection Professionals, told SSN he supports expanding the law, but in a way “that makes sense” and is more cost effective.

“Don’t bother putting CO detection everywhere in the building, put it where it’s going to be an issue [near a combustion device],” Brobst advised.

He said he’d like to see Maine mandate the devices be in places like furnace rooms instead of bedrooms or hallways outside of bedrooms.

“If you have a carbon monoxide issue in the furnace room, it’s not going to affect anybody in the building until it permeates into one of the apartments,” he said. It’s better to have a detector located where it will sound as soon as the gas is emitted from a combustion source.

And professional monitoring of CO devices is also vital, Brobst said. He said that if a detector goes off in a furnace room, typically “a facility’s manager would go check out the sound, but there’s nothing that individual can do and if they go into this room that’s toxic, they may end up on the floor.”

But a central station can call the fire department, which has the equipment to detect high levels of carbon monoxide and the knowledge of how to deal with it.

In the Long Island mall CO incident, firefighters found the restaurant manager, Steven Nelson, unconscious in the basement of the restaurant, CNN reported.

The restaurant didn’t have a CO detector because state law only requires them in commercial establishments where people sleep, according to CNN. There are now calls in the state to expand the law to cover other types of businesses.

Bob Williams, president of Long Island-based Briscoe Protective Systems, told SSN in an email interview, “It’s a shame to think that even a $20 battery-operated CO detector could have alerted the manager of the impending danger before it became a toxic level.”

He added, “I am definitely in favor of mandating the requirement s for these detectors in commercial occupancies, but cost is always a deterrent factor especially with existing commercial fire alarms systems that need to be retrofitted to accept these detectors.”

Williams advised, “At a minimum, hardwired AC-powered CO detectors with battery backup should be required to be installed in all existing commercial buildings, and new or significantly renovated buildings should have interconnected system detectors.”

An original version of this story appears in securitysystemnews.com

What if robust physical security systems weren’t just for enterprises? What if they were for small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), too?

The truth is that they are. Titan Alarm has partnered with Brivo Systems and offers physical security solutions aren’t just for the pioneering enterprises and companies with big bucks; they’re for everyone. Hackers and thieves don’t pay much attention to whether a company is an enterprise or owned by a sole proprietor – why should we?

We don’t. Products at Brivo are designed for adaptability, scalability, and budgets both large and small.

Adaptability

Brivo OnAir integrates into the coffee shop on the corner as easily as it does into the corporate conglomerate headquartered in Seattle. Because of the cloud, physical security can be for as few as one or two doors or as many as all the offices in the corporate headquarters.

The access control system adapts to its environment. The coffee shop owner needs a simple installation; the corporation requires a more complex one. Both solutions, however, are built upon the same framework.

Scalability

Coffee shops grow. They start with one location and expand to others. With Brivo OnAir, the coffee shop owner doesn’t have to worry about purchasing a physical security system for each new storefront. The cloud allows her to incorporate other sites. All she has to do is have some card readers installed at her newest shop, and she’s good to go.

Corporations also grow, sometimes globally. They sometimes have a need for a temporary office, too. Rather than attempt to purchase a physical security system overseas, the team at home expands access and security to the satellite location.

Budgets

Coffee shops and corporations do not have similar budgets. The former, particularly if it’s a new establishment, has much of its funds tied up in coffee beans, grinders, and all the other accoutrements. It needs an access control and security solution, but its budget is more or less limited. A corporation is likely to have a larger budget and possibly even to dedicate funds to identity and access management (IAM) and security.

Brivo OnAir, as well as our new HaaS program, work in both situations. Because it’s adaptive and scalable, the resources required are adaptive and scalable. In addition, many of the upfront costs are lower due to cloud management and computing. A final point: maintenance and costs are lower month-over-month and year-over-year, making the return on investment (ROI) greater and total cost of ownership (TCO) lower.

Want to learn more about how Titan Alarm and  Brivo OnAir can work in your specific environment? Give us a call!

Learn More About Commercial Security

• What Security System Should I Get for a Rental Property?
• Commercial Security Needs
• How to Avoid Scams That Target Business

Protecting employees, customers and property from the devastation of a fire is not on the moral obligation of a business owner, but it’s a requirement of the law. Failure to properly inspect your fire systems on a routine basis can lead to failures in the system, resulting in devastating losses for your business and potential fees and legal action from your local government. Its important to hire a professional inspector who not only understands the law, but also how to properly install and maintain the highest quality fire protection equipment in the optimal way for you location.

It’s the Law

In order to ensure that your fire alarm system is working properly it is required to be tested and inspected by a licensed fire alarm inspection company. This is required by law and should be performed at least once a year. Licensed inspectors will perform the required testing and inspection, provide a detailed inspection report, and can perform repairs on any noted deficiencies.

Most jurisdictions require at minimum an annual inspection by a licensed, certified fire inspector. Fire laws vary from state to state. In Arizona businesses are governed by state and local municipal fire codes and require fire inspections at least once per year and always when starting new construction projects or major renovations.

Failure to comply with the state and local codes to inspect your business properly can result in work freezes that can shut down your construction project or freeze your business activates. This along with fines for lack of compliance can cripple your ability to do business.

Legal information pertaining to your business can be obtained by visiting the websites for local, state and county fire marshals office. Projects and businesses operating at the federal level may also be subject to federal fire laws and codes.

Hiring a licensed fire inspection company is the best way to insure you are complying with all the applicable laws and is often required.

It’s the Right thing to Do

Protecting the safety of your employees, your property and assets is always the main objective of a fire inspection. Small problems can quickly lead to giant ones in a fire protection system and a fire is unforgiving event often resulting in great damage if the right systems are not functioning to prevent it and monitor for it. A yearly fire inspection is a great way to identify possible trouble areas.

Often basic code compliance does not mean optimal fire protection. Hiring a licensed fire inspector will also give you insight into how your system is functioning and what areas need work or improvement and can guide you in actions you can take to prevent problems with your systems, such as preventive maintenance for your fire system.

Learn More About Testing & Inspection

• Fire Alarm Inspections
• Fire Alarm Testing