Winter 2010

Fire Prevention. We Are The Silent Partner!

Chad Asselstine, Manager, Business Development is stepping in for this edition of the Fire Monitoring of Canada Inc. CEO message.

The holiday season is upon us. While the holidays are meant to bring joy to everyone, they also come with heightened risks for fire in the home and the business. FMC would like to take the opportunity to share some helpful fire prevention and maintenance tips for the home and commercial environment with everyone.

• Install a minimum of one smoke detector per floor in the home
• Test your smoke detectors minimally once per month
• Change the batteries in your smoke detector twice per year
• Test and record your fire alarm systems in accordance with manufacturers’ instructions at least monthly
• Store flammables away from pilot lights and flame
• During plant shutdown; ensure your wet sprinkler systems are in a heated environment
• Do you have an up to date Fire Plan which has considered your handicapped staff
• Ensure that your fire extinguishers are inspected regularly
• Be sure to unplug any space heaters
• Remember, our firefighters can’t help if they don’t get a call…

The last tip is the one that we will concentrate on for the remainder of our message. If you are a regular reader of our CEO message you are already familiar with the Time/Temperature Relationship as it pertains to fire response. If this is the first time that you have heard of it, please take the opportunity to familiarize yourself with it below:

To note, we can see that a fire grows exponentially every 2 minutes.

Below is a brief synopsis of the fire response process when a fire alarm system and fire monitoring system are both present in the building.

• Detection: A detection device (smoke detector, heat detector, or pull station) connected to the building’s fire alarm system is triggered to initiate the fire alarm.
• Notification: The fire alarm monitoring panel transmits the fire alarm signal to the Signal Receiving Centre (fire monitoring provider) where the SRC Dispatcher will then contact the appropriate PSAP or Fire Department.
• Dispatch: The PSAP or Fire Department Dispatcher dispatches the appropriate trucks to the scene.
• Assembly: Fire fighters Assemble for Travel.
• Travel: The dispatched trucks Travel to the scene.
• Set-up: The fire fighters Set-up on scene.

At FMC we concentrate on the reduction of the Notification stage. This is the stage in which the monitoring industry has a direct impact. It is our philosophy at FMC to monitor our customers up to the CAN/ULC-S561-03 standards, to include notifying the PSAP or Fire Department within 30 seconds of receiving the signal at the SRC.

As presented by the Leber/Rubes study (see News: Articles of Interest) it was discovered that it takes monitoring companies on average two full minutes to notify the PSAP or Fire Department once receiving a fire alarm monitoring signal. At FMC, we see ourselves as the “Silent Partner in Fire Prevention”. We pride ourselves in utilizing the best available technologies to reduce the Notification stage as much as possible.

If you are a regular visitor to our website you will know that FMC utilizes OPEN ACCESS^TM wherever available. OPEN ACCESS^TM is a service that electronically redirects fire signals from the Signal Receiving Centre to the appropriate fire service communication centre simultaneously to these signals being received at FMC’s SRC. The use of OPEN ACCESS^TM dramatically reduces the Notification stage as the need for human intervention and potential queue factors at the SRC are removed from the process.

If the Notification stage takes on average two full minutes, then we can presume based on the Time/Temperature Relationship graph that the fire is four times larger when the fire fighters arrive to a NON OPEN ACCESS^TM monitored fire alarm system.

As we have all been taught from an early age, the fire fighters cannot fight a fire if they do not get the call. At FMC we continue to play our part as the “Silent Partner in Fire Prevention”. Let us place the call.

For more information on OPEN ACCESS^TM please feel free to contact us.

Chad Asselstine
Manager, Business Development
Fire Monitoring of Canada Inc.

Summer 2009

Reducing Response Times, We’re all in it Together!

Chad Asselstine, Manager, Business Development is stepping in for this edition of the Fire Monitoring of Canada Inc. CEO message.

We recently attended the 2009 Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs annual conference. A common theme emerged from our conversations with the Chiefs and Dignitaries. The need to reduce response times continues to press the fire community. We at Fire Monitoring of Canada Inc. (FMC) and Fire Monitoring Technologies International (FMTI) are of the same mindset. The most pressing need is to get fire fighters to the scene as soon as possible in order to reduce the risk of property damage and personal injury.

While FMC and the fire community share the same goal of reducing response times, the two parties appear to focus on the reduction of differing time variables. The difference between areas of focus is only natural, as both FMC and the fire community look to improve their area of expertise; the stages that they can directly manipulate. If we are to take a look at the Time/Temperature Relationship presented below, it illustrates each stage/variable of a fire response.

To note, we can see that a fire grows exponentially every 2 minutes.

The response to a fire progresses through six distinct stages/variables when a fire alarm system and fire monitoring system are present in the building.

• The first is Detection, once a fire has started a detection device (smoke detector, heat detector, or pull station) connected to the building’s fire alarm system needs to be triggered either electronically or by an occupant in order for the fire alarm panel to initiate the fire alarm (alert).
• The second is Notification, once the fire alarm panel has initiated a fire alarm signal, the fire alarm monitoring panel will then transmit the fire alarm signal to the Signal Receiving Centre (fire monitoring provider) where the SRC Dispatcher will then contact the appropriate PSAP or Fire Department.
• The third is Dispatch, the PSAP or Fire Department Dispatcher dispatches the appropriate trucks to the scene.
• The dispatched fire fighters Assemble for Travel.
• The dispatched trucks Travel to the scene.
• The fire fighters Set-up on scene.

It is understandable that of the above stages, the final four (Dispatch, Assembly, Travel, and Set-Up) are the four that receive the most attention by the fire community because these are the stages that they have a direct impact. However, at FMC we concentrate on the reduction of the Notification stage, the stage where we have a direct impact.

At Fire Monitoring of Canada Inc. it is our philosophy to implement OPEN ACCESS^TM wherever available. OPEN ACCESS^TM is a service that electronically redirects fire signals from the Signal Receiving Centre to the appropriate fire service communication centre simultaneously to these signals being received at FMC’s SRC. The use of OPEN ACCESS^TM dramatically reduces the Notification stage as the need for human intervention and potential queue factors at the SRC are removed from the process.

As presented by Leber/Rubes (see News: Articles of Interest), OPEN ACCESS^TM reduced the Notification stage by an average of two full minutes, even with the exclusion of 10% of the tested sites from the results of the study because their signals were never even called into the fire service communication centre. If the Notification stage takes on average two full minutes, it can be presumed that the fire is four times larger when the Fire Department arrives to a non OPEN ACCESS^TM monitored fire alarm system. Given the vast improvements in technology in this day in age, two minutes and a fire which is four times as large is unacceptable.

The fire community continues to invest in new mapping systems, vehicles, and equipment in order to reduce response times. However, this infrastructure costs a great deal of money and the improved technologies cannot eliminate the uncontrollable variables of travel distance and traffic. If we were to say that we can provide a technology that has been proven to eliminate two full minutes in response time, allowing the Fire Department to arrive at a fire that is four times smaller than they would otherwise be attending, would you be interested?

For more information on OPEN ACCESS^TM please feel free to contact us.

Chad Asselstine
Manager, Business Development
Fire Monitoring of Canada Inc.

Winter 2009

What Does CAN/ULC-S561-03 Certification Mean to the Building Owner?

Chad Asselstine, Manager, Business Development is stepping in for this edition of the Fire Monitoring of Canada Inc. CEO message.

First off, on behalf of everyone here at Fire Monitoring of Canada Inc. we hope that everyone has had a great Holiday Season and was able to enjoy it with loved ones.

Here we sit 14 months since the official release of the Ontario Fire Code published on November 21^st, 2007, and I am pleased to say changes are happening. Although change is prevalent, as it stands enforcement of the new standards for fire alarm monitoring laid out in the Ontario Fire Code remains geographically isolated. While there are a number of Fire Departments who have embraced these changes to the new Code as they relate to the CAN/ULC-S561-03 fire alarm monitoring standard, and are asking building owners to do the same, there remain a number of others who have yet to enforce these standards.

The act of a building owner subscribing to a CAN/ULC-S561-03 certificate in essence shifts a large portion of the building owner’s responsibility back to their fire monitoring provider. Once a fire monitoring provider requests and delivers a CAN/ULC-S561-03 certificate on behalf of a building or customer they are stating that this particular building’s fire monitoring services are installed and operating in accordance with CAN/ULC-S561-03’s standard for “Installation and Services for Fire Signal Receiving Centers and Systems”.

Providing the building owner continues with the certificate subscription, they have now placed the onus on their fire monitoring provider to ensure they meet the prescribed requirements as laid out in the standard to include:

• Contacting the appropriate public fire service communication centre within a maximum of 30 seconds of the receipt of the signal
• Equipment installed on site must be CAN/ULC-S559 (Equipment for Fire Signal Receiving Centres and Systems Standard) tested and certified
• Contacting the subscriber’s designate within 5 minutes to indicate that a trouble and/or supervisory signal in the fire alarm control unit has been received by the Signal Receiving Centre (SRC)
• Contacting the subscriber’s designate within 5 minutes of receiving a failure to communicate signal from the fire monitoring panel has been received by the SRC
• Service personnel must be subjected to background checks

This is just a few of the requirements of the standard, and if the monitoring provider does not meet these requirements they are subject to penalization by the Underwriters’ Laboratories of Canada (ULC), to include removal of their listing as a standards’ compliant business.

This leads to the question: Is it not scary to think that if you in fact do not have a CAN/ULC-S561-03 certificate for your fire monitoring system, that your fire monitoring provider does not need to meet these requirements?

This brings us back to the independent study conducted by Leber/Rubes (see News: Articles of Interest), in which they discovered that it took, on average, two full minutes for fire alarm signals to be delivered to the fire service communication centre (Fire Department) from a monitoring company. Two minutes; and the CAN/ULC-S61-03 requirements are a maximum of 30 seconds. Time is precious when dealing with fire. If the Ontario Fire Code has adopted this standard, then why are building owners and some fire officials still settling for anything less than requirements as determined by fire safety officials?

At Fire Monitoring of Canada Inc. it is our philosophy to implement OPEN ACCESS™ wherever available. OPEN ACCESS™ is a service that electronically redirects fire signals SRC to the appropriate fire service communication centre simultaneously to these signals being received at FMC’s SRC. The use of OPEN ACCESS™ guarantees that the signals are delivered to the fire service communication centre well under the prescribed 30 second maximum.

We at FMC are of the firm belief that Fire Codes have been established to set the bar for life safety of the public, and choosing to ignore those standards is simply increasing the risk to any person affected by your building.

If there’s a message that I can leave with everyone it would be to ask your monitoring provider if they are CAN/ULC-S561-03 listed for the Installation and Services for Fire Signal Receiving Centres and Systems, and if they can issue a certificate stating this compliance for your fire alarm monitoring situation. If the answer to either of these questions is no, are you comfortable with that?

At Fire Monitoring of Canada Inc. we firmly believe that fire monitoring is a valuable life safety service, and accepting anything less than a CAN/ULC-S561-03 certified fire monitoring system leaves you vulnerable.

Chad Asselstine
Manager, Business Development
Fire Monitoring of Canada Inc.

Fall 2007

A Change in Seasons

Autumn is one of my favorite times of year. The change of season brings cooler days, lots of color, and big gray clouds that suggest it’s time to hunker down for a while.

Hunkering down might be fine for the weather, but it’s the furthest thing from our minds at Fire Monitoring of Canada Inc. these days as we prepare for two very big changes on the horizon over the next few months:

The first relates to the long awaited publication of a new Ontario Fire Code (OFC) which came into effect on November 21^st. As many in the fire services and alarm industry know, we have been advocating changes to fire and building codes for a number of years now to recognize the new response technologies on the market which can reduce response time and enhance public and first responder safety.

We began this campaign shortly after a study performed in 2000 in two cities (Mississauga and Ottawa) demonstrated that electronic re-transmission of a fire alarm signal directly to the fire department CAD system (and more specifically, using OPEN ACCESS^™) could reduce response time to an alarm by almost two full minutes. OPEN ACCESS^™ -- a name which many of you are familiar with – has been proven to be a reliable, safe and effective service for delivering those signals within the reduced time frames, and is only available to ULC-listed monitoring stations.

The key change in the Ontario Fire Code we are focusing on is the addition of clause (b) in Division B, Section 6.3.1.2 - Monitoring. Clause (b) inserts a new requirement that for central station monitoring of a “coded” facility, the monitoring service must comply with either NFPA 71 (an older standard, originally published in 1989 and a requirement in the previous version of the OFC) or a new Made-in-Canada standard: CAN/ULC-S561, “Installation and Services for Fire Signal Receiving Centres and Systems”. As a result, operators of central stations will now have an additional option, when requested, to demonstrate that the monitoring of a facility is up to Code.

A ULC certificate can be helpful to the efforts of fire prevention officers: posting a ULC certificate on a commercial or coded building site demonstrating compliance with “S-561” provides all the necessary evidence that the new OFC rules are being met. The ULC certificate effectively puts additional “eyes and ears” out on the street in support of the important work which Fire Prevention Officers do on a daily basis, and raises the bar for public safety at the same time.

It is puzzling, however, as to why the reference to NFPA 71 remains in the Ontario Fire Code. We all know the good work that NFPA has done in the past, but NFPA 71 has effectively dropped off the radar screen: the standard isn’t even mentioned on the NFPA’s web site any longer, and there is no official documentation from NFPA that would enable a user to demonstrate (by way of a certificate, for example) compliance with the standard. At a minimum, retaining NFPA 71 sends a mixed message in terms of whether the intent of this Code change as it pertains to monitoring was really to “raise the bar” or not.

The second reason that we won’t be hunkering down any time soon with the chillier weather is because in September, our company acquired TMF Security of Markham, Ontario. With the addition of TMF, we have become a full-service security solution provider, meaning that we now can offer design and installation of fire monitoring systems, intrusion, access control, CCTV and integrated building systems. TMF brings with them knowledge and experience in being a high-end integrated systems provider, specializing in commercial and multi-residential properties. Mark Fairley, our colleague in the industry for many years and a former owner of TMF Security, will join FMC as Vice President of Training and Education. We welcome Mark and other staff members from TMF aboard.

Whether it’s a change in the weather or in the business environment, we will continue our push for the adoption of the latest codes and technologies that enhance public safety and represent best business practices. All of us at FMC look forward to a continued partnership with AHJ’s in pursuit of these goals.

Jim Asselstine

President & CEO

Fire Monitoring of Canada Inc./Fire Monitoring Technologies International Inc.

Winter 2007

How Building Code Changes Will Impact Monitoring of Fire Systems

Change is usually a good thing. After many months of work, the updated version of the Ontario Building Code, or OBC, was unveiled just before Christmas.

Unfortunately, these long-awaited changes fall short of what was intended by the National Building Code amendments, and unless steps are taken to clarify certain ambiguities, confusion will be the result. Let me explain.

The new OBC, along with its parent the National Building Code, reference a new standard intended to improve the monitoring of fire alarm systems that are mandated to have 24-hour monitoring. The new standard, CAN/ULC-S561-03, with the somewhat unwieldy title: “The Installation and Services for Fire Signal Receiving Centres and Systems”, replaces an older, similar document known as “ORD 693”.

The new standard endorses newer technologies that are available on the market today in an effort to enhance both the functionality and integrity of the monitoring of fire alarm systems. The standard will therefore impact both the central station (or Signals Receiving Centre, SRC, as the new standard calls it) and the premises being monitored.

Referencing the new standard in the National Building and Fire Codes will address a common misconception: the belief that because a monitoring station has a ULC listing, the premises being monitored is also being monitored in accordance with ULC requirements. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. For example, a monitoring station can have 3 ULC-compliant systems and gain a ULC listing, but may also have numerous other systems which are not being monitored in accordance with ULC specifications.

The new National Building Code clarifies – in language that leaves no room for interpretation-- that premises requiring 24-hour monitoring as prescribed by the Codes must be monitored to CAN/ULC-S561-03 standards. Although the OBC undoubtedly intended the same objective, it chose wording which is less clear and subject to interpretation where no such ambiguity should have ever existed.

We need to fix this problem fast!

The fire services can do that by requiring a ULC certificate at the premises location, as some jurisdictions already do. The advantage of a ULC certificate is that it puts an additional set of “eyes and ears” in the Fire Prevention Officer’s toolkit. Assessing the integrity and compliance of a fire alarm monitoring system is a difficult and somewhat technical job at the best of times. With all of the things that an FPO has to keep track of, being able to rely on a ULC certificate to ensure that the fire alarm monitoring is compliant takes a huge load off their plate. We could also talk about the advantage to the fire services in terms of the reduced potential liability, but that is another topic in itself.

In conclusion, while I started out this message talking about the importance of change, I’d remind you that a 1995 Communiqué from the Ontario Fire Marshall specifically recommended the option of asking to see a ULC certificate to ensure that systems are properly monitored and compliant with the latest requirements.

It is clear what we have to do. It was recommended in 1995, and the advice is still valid today. Let’s get ULC certificates in place at the premises of buildings that require 24-hour monitoring. Plus ca change!

Jim Asselstine

President & CEO

For those interested in a more detailed analysis of the recent changes, please visit http://www.fire-monitoring.com or call us at 1-800-263-2534 and we will gladly send you a copy.

Summer 2006

Written by: Holly Barkwell-Holland
Director of Research & Development

Standards, Data Communication and Interoperability

I was in attendance recently at the CFSA Annual Education Forum and as you might expect, it was a full day packed with information. A perusal of the conference program prepared me for a day geared towards codes and standards and the application of and needless to say, I was not disappointed. Those that attended heard about technical changes to the Ontario Fire Code, NFPA 101, the National Construction Code, and the Ontario Building Code, not to mention trends in fire testing standards and flammability standards.

The operative word for the day was standards. Standards or lack thereof have shaped the way we as a nation go about doing things on a day to day basis and have for many years. Standards in and of themselves are a great measure of the progress of society because they continually enhance our standard of living. They ensure that the products and services we use every day are safe according to a National and Provincial set of pre-determined criteria.

The downside of standards is that they are currently reactive rather than proactive in nature. As Sean Tracey from the NFPA very poignantly pointed out during his presentation, nothing is generally done with regards to standards until something terrible happens, and that something is usually a tragedy of magnitude. Cases in point are; the World Trade Centre Disaster of Sept 11th, 2001; the Station Nightclub in Warwick, RI on Feb 20, 2003; and the Greenwood Health Care Centre Fire in Hartford, CN in Feb 2003. NFPA 101 now reflects changes in occupancy sprinkler requirements based on these tragedies.

We, the developers of OPEN ACCESS™, completely understand this phenomenon. OPEN ACCESS™ is a commercial product that has been designed to save a significant amount of time (120 seconds) during the process of relaying fire alarm signals directly from an SRC (Signals Receiving Centre) to the local Fire Department. Not only does OPEN ACCESS™ get the signal delivered to the Fire Department much more quickly through electronic re-transmission, it also reduces the processing time for the fire dispatcher since data is pre-verified before delivery. Additionally, it reduces the potential for the introduction of Human error through data entry.

It would appear that OPEN ACCESS™ is a very simple and straight forward application of new technology with a proven and documented benefit to the fire community. And yet, the concept is not being embraced by the alarm or the SRC community. Whether this is a result of industry complacency, the size of the company or the size of the marketing budget is hard to determine, one thing is certain; at some point, there will be an incident, and, time will be a factor.

CAN/ULC-S561-03, “Installation and Services For Fire Signal Receiving Centres and Systems” which replaces ULC/ORD-C693-1994, directly supports the use of electronic re-transmission in order to meet the new 30 second time frame mandated in the standard for transmission of fire alarm signals from an SRC to the Fire Department. This fact makes the industry indifference even more confusing since adoption of this ideology can only help to enhance operational efficiency at an SRC.

Business entities need to embrace the idea of communicating electronically and sharing information with each other on a regular basis. To have this ability not only speeds up the process of transfer by several orders of magnitude, it can also dramatically enhance the reliability of the data and add value to the business case if applied properly. The important point to note is that standards have an important role in the success of any business venture.

Delivering fire alarm signals electronically to emergency service agencies is only one aspect of what can be accomplished through acceptance and adoption of standards and FMTI has been involved with some large scale projects which demonstrate this concept. The following is a good example; A consortium of private and public entities in the U.S. called COMCARE brought together a number of different providers of emergency services from across the U.S. including hospitals, Fire and Police Departments, Ambulance Services, Emergency Operations Centres and others. These entities had one goal in common. They wanted to find a way to share data safely and reliably with each other, but without having to invest in new technology and equipment to do it. In other words they wanted something that would use the tools at hand.

The effort has resulted in a large international network of participants. By using already existing and widely accepted standards that determined how the hardware would physically connect to each other, the group eliminated one large obstacle to the project and reduced the time and effort required to implement. However, it was determined that a new standard was needed to describe what the data actually needed to look like, and so that process was undertaken.

Large scale testing of the entire concept was conducted for the first time in November of 2004 with approximately sixteen entities in total from different states participating including FMTI from Canada. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) transmitted an electronic message to the network warning of a potential terrorist attack. That message was then forwarded to a number of trusted recipients including FMTI (the only Canadian authorized participant) and from there relayed to a number of agencies scattered across North America. FMTI then used OPEN ACCESS™ to transmit this message to one of our partner agencies and display it on their Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) system without making a single code change to accommodate the transmission.

Sound impossible? OPEN ACCESS™ was designed and built from the ground up to provide a conduit for data transfer. This applies from any source to any source. Connecting to other computer systems and networks is our area of expertise and consequently we adhere to a variety of standards sets. It may sound cumbersome but in fact allows us to accommodate virtually any connection scheme with very minor adjustments (if any are required at all).

The key point to take away from this article is that adopting and embracing a set of standards can deliver a lot more impact and functionality by association than by building “a one of” entity. By going one step further and participating in the process, you are ensuring that your business is competent, relevant and most of all competitive. Standards compliance may even help to bridge the gap in a market that you hadn’t previously considered, since standards are generally geared to embrace new ideas and technologies as they become available, rather than impose restrictions; hence the move to objective based codes in both Provincial and National Building and Fire Codes in Canada.

Holly Barkwell-Holland

Director, Research & Development

Winter 2006

Holly Barkwell-Holland our Director of Research & Development is standing in for Jim Asselstine for the winter CEO message.

What in the World Are We Waiting For?

The world of emergency service provision is a strange one, particularly for fire. On one hand a simple and seemingly straight forward mission; help people and protect lives and property. On the other hand; a tight budget, new objective based codes & accountability. The industry has certainly come a long way from having its only concern being to get the trucks out the door as fast as possible to reach a fire. Now one must take into consideration mutual aid, multi-jurisdictional and tiered responses.

Financial experts and computer modeling systems are crunching numbers and looking at the bottom line in an effort to squeeze every last ounce of productivity out of equipment and personnel. No one and no piece of equipment is spared scrutiny. The communications centre is certainly no exception. Centres are being amalgamated and personnel are being cross trained as part of overall efforts to become more efficient. Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) systems are becoming increasingly complicated in an effort to keep up with the pace of what needs tracking. Response times, vehicles, platoons, equipment, clothing, fire hydrants and even tools; nothing escapes the hunt for efficiency.

Statistics are kept on dispatchers in an effort to predict how long it takes to get the trucks out the door. Why? Because everyone in the fire industry knows that in the event of a fire, the first four minutes are the most critical. After the four minute mark, a fire grows exponentially and the risk to life and property grows right along with it. So it makes perfect sense that every second that can be saved is crucial.

Which is why I am so perplexed that there is still such resistance to products like OPEN ACCESS™ or e-DTF (electronic Direct To Fire). Agencies are spending millions of dollars integrating radio systems and implementing new CAD systems to achieve higher levels of efficiency by providing better and more accurate data to the people in the field, and yet these same people are not taking advantage of simple tools such as e-DTF which have been independently proven to save an average of two full minutes in the reporting and dispatch process for fire alarms.

It is understandable that there might be concerns over false alarms, but there are new codes and standards that have recently been produced by the Underwriter’s Laboratories of Canada (ULC) that are now referenced by the National Building Code. The National and Provincial Fire Codes both reference the National and Provincial building codes which now make reference to the ULC standards. Most notable of these standards are CAN/ULC S-561-03 and CAN/ULC S-559-04. With the link now complete between all three levels of enforcement, these standards are a major achievement and a very powerful enforcement tool for fire prevention personnel. The alarm industry has also become proactive and an advocate of the new standards and are now taking steps to make themselves more accountable and to make sure that the industry becomes self policing in an effort to improve the industry image and move forward.

The time has come to put aside old biases and have the fire and the alarm industries come together to re-examine ways in which to increase efficiency in the communications centre. OPEN ACCESS™ is the answer because it allows non favoritism participation from the alarm industry. By that I mean that with OPEN ACCESS™ acting as the gateway, all alarm companies can offer the same valuable service to their customers, and the fire department can offer faster and more accurate response. There just is no downside to the equation… So what are you waiting for?

Holly Barkwell-Holland

Director, Research & Development

A few years ago, I realized that the dream of seeing every monitored commercial and coded premises connected electronically to the fire department would need something more than just good technology and salesmanship. It would also need a kick-start from the regulatory environment, be it in the form of Codes, standards or new legislation, that incorporated the life safety aspects of early response.

Back in 1999, we hadn’t coined the expression “e-DTF” -- standing for electronic direct to fire department notification or electronic data transmission facility -- but our company had certainly embarked on a path toward making that its major business mission. In its early days, OPEN ACCESS™, the name we have given to this e-DTF service, was quickly demonstrating that the electronic transmission of fire alarm signal data directly into a CAD represented a big leap in technology and practice.

We are now well into Version 2 of OPEN ACCESS™. We have implemented newer and more stringent data security features along with enhanced data integrity algorithms. At the same time, we know that the ubiquity of the Net will help to expand the market for this technology well beyond what it is today. It is simply a matter of time, and we are preparing diligently and thoroughly for the day when the demand for OPEN ACCESS™ will hopefully overwhelm us. We know that challenge is coming, and we are getting ready for it.

One of the steps I took in late 1999 was to bring Norm Cheesman, the former Executive Director of CANASA, on board as our Director of Communications to help sharpen awareness of our new technology and to find ways to mandate the technology. With the approvals of the two ULC standards on fire monitoring, particularly ULC S – 561, much of that work is now done. When we started out, however, we neither knew the best approach or how long it would take to enshrine the principle of electronic response in the Code. I’m happy to say that the next revision to the National Building Code will incorporate the new standard, and our mission to ‘mandate’ e-DTF will be complete.

As a result, Norm has moved on to set up his own consulting business in communications and public affairs. Accordingly, we have retained Cheesman & Associates for ongoing services to help us maintain our profile and stay in contact with various stakeholders, including of course, the fire services. He can continue to be reached at 416 964 7221 or via email at cheesman@fire-monitoring.com.

As OPEN ACCESS™ moves into a new phase of development, please join me in wishing Norm the best of luck as he also moves into a new phase of his life and work.

J.F. (Jim) Asselstine

The business of public safety – which is one way to describe the “business” that my company and the fire services are all in – is truly a partnership between the public and private sector. And it is encouraging to see with the passage of time that this is still the case.

Some of you know that I spent much of my early career in the intrusion alarm field. One of the shortcomings of this part of the alarm industry was its failure to view the police services as partners in public safety. As a result, false alarm programs, fines and in some cases, non, or qualified-response programs followed.

For those whose focus is on fire and other emergency services, as mine has been over the past five years since coming to Fire Monitoring, it is simply not possible or desirable to view our work as anything other than a partnership. This is not radical thinking; it is vital to running a good business, providing a useful service, and doing it profitably.

But who are the partners I’m talking about?

First of course are the Chiefs, and other senior management in the fire services who have responsibility for meeting increasing demands with tighter and tighter budgets. Add to that the need to stay abreast of new technologies, new safety practices, and the many requests from the communities they serve for information, expertise or participation, and it’s no wonder some of you are looking forward to early retirement!

Secondly is the work of Fire Prevention Officers who are on the front line of ensuring compliance with codes, standards and local regulations, as well as ensuring that proper safety information is disseminated to both commercial and residential users. The willingness to show leadership and consider improvements to current safety practices, as demonstrated in the OMFPOA’s support this past Spring for a new ULC fire monitoring standard, is a reflection of a partnership at work.

Thirdly, the Underwriter’s Laboratories of Canada, or ULC. I often hear people ready to criticize the ULC for some of its failings, but I can tell you from personal experience that this organization does an admirable job under similar time and resource constraints that the rest of us share. I know of what I speak, because since 2001 I have participated on two ULC committees updating fire-related standards, one of which I’m happy to say has wrapped up its work. The ULC must ensure that committee representation is fair and equitable, and that all deliberations and decisions are transparent and follow due process. Not an easy job, and they do it for the most part with professionalism and integrity.

Chiefs, FPO’s, the ULC, and those in industry all are making a positive contribution to this country’s public safety infrastructure. Call it what you like, but it’s a partnership and a pretty good one at that.

All that being said, there are some very good people on the “principled” side of our industry. They truly understand the benefits of early response. Most have joined the Fire service to “fight” fires. In our solution, prevention and early response are key. The future of firefighting will be prevention driven, I am sure.

This past week and the North American power failure have tested all of us in the emergency services sector. I am proud of our team at Fire Monitoring.

There are two tiers to a Fire alarm response. Firstly, detect the alarm and secondly…..respond on it.

Codes and standards have augmented the first tier….

The Standards Council of Canada and the Underwriter’s Laboratories of Canada have moved light years ahead on the second tier….

Let us all join in and continue to move the bar up another notch in Fire Safety.

J.F. (Jim) Asselstine

Fire prevention officers in Ontario should be commended for the bold step they took last month at their Annual meeting. This step took the form of addressing a gap which has existed for a long time with respect to the safety of the monitoring of fire alarm systems.

But first, some background. While there has never been any shortage of standards to cover the equipment, testing and inspection of fire alarm systems, less attention has been paid to the monitoring connection. As a result, there is a "gap" in the safety and inspection framework when it comes to the actual way fire alarm systems are monitored.

To some, this sounds like a situation of an "accident waiting to happen". In fact, it may already have happened in at least one place.....

In Ottawa a few years ago, a major loss at a large facility with 24-hour monitoring prompted the fire department to conduct a lengthy investigation. Determined to understand what contributed to this loss, fire prevention officers did a study of over 300 other "coded" premises across the city. To their surprise, they found numerous violations such as improper wiring, grounding, or improper use of equipment (digital dialers). In addition, they found violations on the monitoring itself - pre-verification by the monitoring stations to be precise, which resulted in delays to or the signal never getting to the fire dispatch.

What might help prevent this from happening in the future? Requiring that any premises which must have 24-hour monitoring [what I call a "coded" premises] to also have a ULC certificate demonstrating compliance with the soon-to-be approved new CAN/ULC - S561 "Standard for the Installation and Services for Signal Receiving Centres and Systems". And, this certificate should be posted to demonstrate compliance.....an add-on by us to the requirement. The new standard, when approved, will "raise the bar" in terms of public safety in at least two respects: by allowing for the use of new, non-redundant technologies, and by tightening the timeframes for the transmission of the fire signal to the dispatch centre.

The recent OMFPOA decision to recommend that fire alarm systems in "coded" premises be monitored in compliance with the proposed new ULC standard, and the requirement that a ULC certificate be posted at the premises indicating such compliance, will go along way toward addressing the "gap" I mentioned earlier.

Fire prevention officers cannot be everywhere at once. Requiring the ULC certificate will give FPOs another set of "eyes and ears" on the street to help in the inspection and enforcement activities.

We should not wait for accidents to happen. I'm glad the OMFPOA doesn't think we should wait either. Let's hope that AHJ's concur.

I admit that fire response is not something the average person spends much time thinking about. Like many public services, fire response tends to be invisible most of the time, something we take for granted.

9/11 certainly garnered sympathy and support for those who earn their living in the fire services, because the risks inherent in that line of work became painfully clear for all to see.

Since the public’s memory tends to be short, it’s not clear what long term impact, if any, this heightened awareness will have on how those in the fire services do their jobs, and what kind of changes in emergency response policies may be forthcoming.

Let me suggest that one direct impact should be a renewed emphasis on finding ways to enhance the safety of the work environment for all firefighters. Surely this is a no-brainer.

One of the main objectives of any fire training program is to enhance safety, and in this respect, considerable time and energy is put into minimizing the time it takes for fire services people to respond to emergencies. When responding to a fire emergency, the earlier the trucks are on the scene, the greater the probability that that fire can be contained. And that means life safety both for the public and for firefighters.

A new technology called electronic direct to the fire department notification, or e-DTF, is now available, which has been proven to significantly reduce response time [see Study] for firefighters because it allows the fire department to get the fire signal faster than under conventional methods. Work continues on making this technology internet- enabled, which will substantially reduce the cost of the service, and hopefully bring more alarm companies and customers on board.

Sometimes I feel that we are with this technology today where ABS brakes were fifteen years ago. At first, no one wanted them, but most could see that the anti-lock brakes represented a big improvement. Of course, there was some added cost. Before too long, one of the higher end automakers began to offer them, first as an option. Then another automaker got on board. Finally, General Motors passed an edict requiring they be installed in all GM cars. They made this decision because it was “the right thing to do” for everyone. To give you an idea how far this has come, would you buy a car today without ABS brakes?

Either because of catastrophe or common sense, e-DTF will be a given some day. Faster fire response is a concept which can’t lose. But until we get there, the question is not only what are we waiting for, but how can we get there faster?

J.F. (Jim) Asselstine

Changing business culture, and "the old ways of doing things", is one of the toughest challenges for any CEO. When I joined Fire Monitoring in 1998, I came to a company which had experienced over twenty years of modest growth based on what was essentially a flawed business model. And I set about to change it.

The company’s success in those early years, which continued well into the 90’s, involved placing receivers on fire department premises, linked with our monitoring station in St. Catharines. We then aggressively marketed direct fire response service to clients in those municipalities where these receivers existed, using faster response and direct fire department connection as key selling tools. The advantage to fire departments: an annual royalty payment based on the number of accounts subscribing to the service, and the faster notification for our company’s clients.

Why was this approach a flawed one? First, it created false expectations on the part of some fire services and city planning personnel who planned for increases in revenues on a yearly basis. The core business of a fire department is not revenue generation: it’s to fulfill a two-fold mission of fire prevention and suppression. Secondly, we alienated our colleagues in the alarm industry, which saw us as intruding on their territory and using the direct connection selling tool as a means to "steal" their clients. How did we fare? We typically peaked at about 10 per cent market share in any community, after which the cost of maintaining and servicing all this hardware became excessive. We began to lose customers.

The advent of OPEN ACCESS, however, has enabled us to introduce a new business model for fire monitoring. First, it will allow us to deliver the benefits of faster fire response to the customers of all alarm stations, not just those who are our customers. But to get away from the most onerous conditions of the old model, we have also had to convince the fire services leadership that OA is about faster response and public safety, and not revenue generation. I’m pleased to say that most fire chiefs today will readily acknowledge that the priority is faster and more reliable response.

The new business model underlying OPEN ACCESS is good for another reason: it supports the two-fold mission of any fire services. As a prevention tool, OPEN ACCESS provides departments with an automated history of activity report which can be used to “flag” premises with problems and allow for pro-active intervention in terms of education and technical assistance where appropriate. It assists on the suppression side by eliminating the possibility of verification, minimizing the possibility for errors when transmitting details of a fire and of course substantially reducing response time.

As we go forward, our current working agreements with fire departments will be modified to reflect these new realities. We don’t expect fire departments to bear the costs of modifying their systems to receive electronic notification of signals or to administer the program. As a result, annual payments to fire services will be limited to supporting their participation with OPEN ACCESS and ensuring that departments are not "out of pocket" for doing so.

Some semblance of normal is starting to return since the events of September 11th. At the same time however, we also realize that some things will never be the same again. We notice this when we go to the airport, or cross a border, or turn on the TV to watch the evening news. Words like "threat", "security" and "preparedness" are now part of the daily lexicon--in addition to more familiar terms like "jobs", "economy" and "interest rates". As the aftermath of Sept 11th continues to play out, we are also more aware of the need to be vigilant in preserving our freedom and the values which we hold so closely.

The events of "9-11" have also created greater awareness of the importance of emergency response services to maintaining law and order and preserving public safety. During this time, Fire Monitoring Technologies International Inc. [FMTI] has pressed on with its mission to become the market leader in electronic direct to fire department [e-DTF] notification capabilities with a plan to unveil a new version of OPEN ACCESS.

To be unveiled later this year, features in the new version will include the move to a web-enabled, real-time platform, which will substantially bring down the communication costs involved in providing the service. Secondly, central station interface requirements will be simpler due to simplifications being designed to the message transmission system. A third improvement will be the elimination of certain features in the "old" version which did not contribute to the overall objective of reducing response time. Finally, the latest security features will be included to ensure the continued integrity of the data being delivered.

We also have begun to look at how we will introduce this new technology to the market, especially as we begin to make the service available to U.S. customers. We will take the company public by year's end and thereby raise sufficient capital to propel this strategy. We will seek the best outside help we can in that endeavor, and continue to leverage the efforts of the very capable team of professionals we have in the company today. So if your organization has a background in helping companies with emerging technologies, we'd like to hear from you.

Finally, we will continue to be active with regulators, fire services organizations, and standards bodies in Canada and the United States, as well as other key stakeholders, to communicate the importance of early response to fire, and the now proven capabilities of e-DTF technology. We remain committed to playing a key role in the enhancement of public safety, as well as the safety of fire and emergency service providers.

The events of the past few weeks remind us of the importance of emergency response services to our society, including firefighters, police officers, and other emergency response providers. Our heart-felt sympathies go out to the friends and families of those who lost their lives in the recent terrorist attack in the U.S. In the days and weeks ahead, we will hear stories of both heroism and tragedy relating to these fallen heroes, and the collective loss will continue to be felt around the world.

Up until Sept 11th, most of us went about our business without a thought to many of the security issues that are now in the forefront of our minds. As we all try to resume our normal activities, I'm reminded of the progress our company has made over the past few months in our attempt to bring a technology to market which will enhance safety and security for fire and emergency services providers, as well as the public.

Over the course of this year, we undertook a study in co-operation with the Mississauga Fire and Emergency Services and the engineering firm Leber Rubes Inc. to verify the time savings from OPEN ACCESS™. The study took place over an 8-week period and included numerous premises subject to the provisions of the Ontario Fire Code requiring them to be monitored for fire. In order to ensure the objectivity of the study, we invited the Insurers' Advisory Organization [IAO] to audit the study and furnish an opinion as to the legitimacy of the methodology and the results.

The study findings were conclusive: almost a two-minute response time advantage for electronic direct to the fire department [e-DTF] technology. Largely in response to these dramatic results, the Ontario Association of Fire Chiefs [OAFC], passed a resolution at their spring annual meeting calling for amendments to national and Ontario building and fire codes mandating the use of e-DTF where possible. Similarly, we are pleased with the growing interest we have seen within the U.S. market in recent months based on these positive study findings.

Concurrently, we've briefed several Ontario Cabinet ministers over the past year as to our progress, and we will be looking to them for support of these important initiatives at the appropriate time in the future. Accompanying these regulatory efforts, we are committed to re-engineering OPEN ACCESS™ so that it can operate in a high-speed, web-based platform. This will lower the cost of the service and make it more attractive for the protective signaling industry to participate.

FMTI is pleased to play its role in the enhancement of safety for the general public, as well as fire and emergency service providers, and we remain committed to these goals as we go forward.