Fire Alarm Monitoring

FMC is proud to provide ULC-S561 compliant alarm monitoring solutions for fire alarm and sprinkler systems to our customers across Canada.

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ULC-Certified Fire Alarm & Sprinkler Monitoring

Fire alarm monitoring connects your building with our ULC-listed Signals Receiving Centre (SRC). The ULC-S561 standard details how to provide fire alarm monitoring in Canada and is referenced in fire and building codes. As such, the ULC-S561 fire alarm monitoring certificate is the only physical proof that the alarm monitoring system in your building is compliant with the ULCS-561 standard. FMC is 100% ULC compliant and can issue such certificates to attest that your building meets the standard.

Our fire monitoring systems are ideal for

Commercial

Fire alarm monitoring works in tandem with your fire alarm system to transmit your alarm signals to a Signals Receiving Centre (SRC).  Once at the SRC, a trained operator notifies the proper authorities.  This allows you to focus on ensuring that the occupants of your building evacuate quickly and safely.

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High-Rise Residential

As part of the Fire Code and Building Code, high-rise residential buildings are required to have fire alarm monitoring services for their building.  A monitored fire alarm system ensures that the fire department is always dispatched upon fire alarm activation, allowing occupants to focus on the safe evacuation of the building.

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City & Government

FMC installs, monitors and services fire alarm and fire sprinkler monitoring systems which are compliant with CAN/ULC-S561. Using a ULC-listed fire alarm monitoring transmitter which is connected to each facility’s fire sprinkler or fire alarm system, allows FMC to notify the fire department in the event of an alarm.

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Industrial

A Fire Alarm Monitoring system works in tandem with your building’s Fire Alarm or Fire Sprinkler System to transmit alarm signals from your facility to our ULC-Listed Signals Receiving Centre (SRC). All of FMC’s fire alarm system installations are CAN/ULC-S561 compliant, which is referenced in Fire and Building codes.

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Education

Safety is the best policy and when it comes to your school; you want to feel secure in knowing that your students, staff and faculty are in a safe environment. It is critical that all schools be equipped with fire alarm monitoring systems to help children, adults, and protect the building itself.  As part of ULC-S561, fire alarm monitoring works to ensure that the fire department is called quickly every time the alarm sounds in the building, allowing teachers and administrators to focus on the expedient evacuation of the building.

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Health Care

FMC’s fire alarm monitoring solutions are CAN/ULC-S561 compliant, as referenced in Fire and Building Codes.  These systems are responsible for transmitting fire alarm signals from your healthcare facility to our ULC-Listed Signals Receiving Centre (SRC).

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What is Fire Alarm Monitoring?

Your fire alarm system is in place to detect a fire in your facility and alert those in the building to evacuate. Sprinkler systems are similar, with the added ability to suppress a fire. What most of these systems are not designed to do is notify the authorities of the potential fire. This means that if no one makes a call to the fire department, they may not respond until it is too late.

To mitigate this, FMC’s CFAA-certified service technicians will install a ULC fire alarm monitoring transmitter in your building. This panel connects to your fire alarm or sprinkler system and transmits signals to our ULC-Listed, Five Diamond monitoring centre, where it will be handled by one of our trained operators.

What We Watch For

Fire Alarms

Fire alarm signals are sent to our ULC-listed SRC when a fire-sensing device like a smoke detector, heat detector, fire pull station, or waterflow is activated in your building. On receipt of a fire alarm signal, FMC is required to notify the fire department within 30 seconds without verification.

Fire Trouble

Fire trouble indicates an issue with the fire alarm system as a whole or its components. The ULC-S561 fire monitoring standard says that FMC has five minutes to notify keyholders of a trouble condition.

Fire Supervisory

A fire supervisory alarm generally means that there is an issue with something that is connected to your fire alarm system. For example, if your building has a sprinkler system in addition to a fire alarm system, supervisory contacts will be provided, indicating an issue with the sprinkler system. Other systems like generators or carbon monoxide systems can also generate supervisory signals if they are connected to the building fire alarm system.

Sprinkler Systems

When monitoring a sprinkler system directly, without an on-site fire alarm panel, FMC will monitor similar, but different types of alarms. The three common alarms that will be monitored include water flow, low water pressure, and gate valve switches.

Waterflow

A water flow signal indicates that water is flowing through the sprinkler system and that the fire department needs to be dispatched. Just like fire alarm signals, FMC is required to notify the fire department of a water flow alarm signal within 30 seconds without verification.

Low-Pressure

A low-pressure signal indicates that the pressure in the sprinkler system has decreased to the point that it may not operate properly. FMC will dispatch keyholders if this signal is received.

Gate Valve

Some valves allow water to pass into your sprinkler system. A closed gate valve means that your sprinkler system may not work, and we’ll dispatch keyholders as required by the ULC-S561 fire monitoring standard.

 

Respond 2 Minutes Faster with OPEN ACCESS™

We leverage OPEN ACCESS™’s revolutionary technology to re-transmit fire alarm information to the appropriate authorities, reducing response times by 114.7 seconds. By automatically transmitting alarms electronically, we can decrease the potential for human error, aiding and expediting the dispatch of emergency response providers.

Traditional monitoring uses an alarm monitoring panel to relay alarm information to a ULC-listed SRC. Once received, alarm monitoring centre operators use this information to dispatch emergency responders by calling and verbally relaying the alarm and building information to the fire department’s emergency dispatcher, who will dispatch the authorities to the location.

Through the use of OPEN ACCESS™, alarms are automatically electronically re-transmitted to the emergency services dispatcher while the initial signal remains under the supervision of the monitoring station operator. The monitoring centre operator still makes a call to verify the alarm data has been received; however, usually by the time his call has been made the emergency responders’ dispatch and turnout procedures are already underway.

Related Products & Services

Fire Alarm Systems

From existing facilities to new installations, FMC can be your complete fire alarm system installation provider. Our diverse and certified team ensures smooth project delivery, guaranteeing that all fire panels and devices are installed efficiently and cost-effectively while maintaining necessary fire code requirements.

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Fire Alarm Inspections

Your fire alarm system must be inspected and maintained on an annual basis to ensure that it is operating as intended and without any deficiencies. The Ontario Fire Code requires that a fire alarm system, with or without voice communication capability, must be inspected and tested in conformance with CAN/ULC-S536.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How do we communicate with your building?

FMC uses ULC-approved methods of communication to monitor your building through the equipment we install with the fire alarm monitoring transmitter. Signals from your fire monitoring system can be sent to us through:

Cellular Communication
IP (Internet)
Phone Lines
DVACS (for legacy systems)

FMC can provide communications in both active and passive formats, meaning that the communication system can either be standalone or requires a back-up. “Active” systems are supervised every 180 seconds and do not need a second form of communication, where a “passive” system is tested once daily and some combination of phone line/cellular/IP is required. Our qualified customer service team will help you determine what fit is best for your facility.

What is ULC-S561?

ULC-S561 is the standard for fire alarm monitoring in Canada. It is the standard that is referenced in Building Codes and Fire Codes and governs how equipment is installed, how it communicates, how our facilities are built, how equipment is maintained, and how we handle the signals we receive from your building. FMC adheres to all ULC-S561 requirements for fire alarm monitoring and can issue ULC certificates to your site. To meet the ULC-S561 standard for fire alarm monitoring, all of these requirements must be met. The ULC Certificate is the only physical proof that your site meets the Standard for fire alarm monitoring. If your monitoring partner can’t issue a ULC certificate, they are not providing ULC-level alarm monitoring.

Who services the ULC fire monitoring equipment?

FMC’s trained, certified technicians perform all installation, servicing and annual maintenance of the fire alarm monitoring and sprinkler monitoring equipment. ULC-S561 requires annual inspections of the monitoring equipment and bi-monthly inspections if we’re connected to a sprinkler system directly.