1 in 4 Campuses Report Fire System Compatibility Issues
LOS ANGELES
Disparate types of fire protection equipment that aren’t compatible are a significant problem for North American colleges, hospitals and schools, according to the 2009 Campus Safety Fire Survey results, which were released today. More than one in four (25.4%) survey participants said they have many types of fire systems installed on their campuses that are not standardized and don’t work well with each other.
That’s a 6.1 percentage point increase compared to the 2008 Campus Safety Fire Surveywhere only 19.3 percent of respondents indicated this was a problem.
Equipment standardization was the fifth most popular challenge mentioned by 2009 survey respondents. Equipment maintenance (47.8%), false/nuisance alarms (46.9%), system integration (35.1%) and lack of administration support (26.3%) were the top four campus fire protection challenges.
Other survey highlights include:
- Although the median number of fires remained the same as in 2008 (two), the average increased from five in 2008 to seven in 2009.
- Compared to 2008, the percentage of respondents who said their campuses had more than 20 fires in the past three years increased in 2009 by nearly six points, from 6 percent to 11.7 percent. More than half of that increase (3.6 points) can be attributed to campuses that experienced 21-30 fires.
- The percentage of respondents who have installed fire detection systems in the past year increased more than six points in 2009 to 45.7 percent from 39.3 percent in 2008.
- More than two in five survey takers (40.4 percent) say the amount of money their campus has to spend on new or upgraded fire systems in 2010 will be less than in 2009. Last year 37.8 percent indicated there would be a reduction in 2009.
- Nearly two in five respondents (39.5 percent) say the amount of money their campus has to spend on new or upgraded fire systems in 2010 will be the same as in 2009. That is two percentage points less than last year (41.7 percent).
To read the survey results from Campus Safety, click here.
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