The Cost of Safety

Being in the construction industry going on 10 years now. You get a good sense for where Owners are willing to spend the money on their projects. And I can tell you for certain; it’s not on the things you don’t see.

June’s thought is reflecting on old projects. And the amount of groans and pushback I have received when working to install Fire Alarm systems. From “What’s the point, it never gets used” to “I don’t want it to stand out“ and my personal favorite “that is too expensive”.

That last one really hits home. That is too expensive. It is too expensive to make sure the single mother of 2 gets home at the end of the day. It is too expensive to make sure the High School Basketball team doesn’t get trapped in the stairwell during an emergency. Is it too expensive to make sure the people that are in your building have a chance to get out in the event of an fire?

Let’s put it this way. Is it too expensive to put in marbled floors? Or maybe it is too expensive to put in decorative lights on the roof so the building looks “neat” at night.

Fire Alarm and other Life Safety system codes are written in blood. The blood of those that died a the hands of “That is too expensive”