
Did you know that October is Fire Prevention Month? Layered Solutions is the perfect resource for notifying staff quickly, speeding up building evacuations and reducing response time from first responders. Let’s discuss the integrated technology that our team can work together with your existing systems to keep your school or organization safe from the threat of fires and more.
Planning ahead during Fire Prevention Month
The 2022 theme for Fire Prevention Month is “Fire won’t wait. Plan your escape!” established by the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). Most school districts, including in Indiana, are required by state law to perform monthly fire drills, in addition to drills for tornado preparedness and manmade occurrences. These plans for escape can make a big difference in schools, and especially for children, to feel prepared and perhaps be less anxious in the case of a true emergency. Fire Prevention Month is also a good opportunity to review overall fire safety with both children and adults, such as regularly checking smoke alarms, preventing fire hazards and how to call for help.
Integrating fire prevention with LSI technology
When an emergency, such as a fire, happens at your school, rushing to make phone calls or compose emails in the 6-11 minutes it takes for first responders to arrive won’t cut it when you have seconds to broadcast critical or life-saving information. With Layered Solutions, instant communication takes place with the tap of one button on a desktop or smart device, getting the message out to first responders, staff, students, parents and any other recipients necessary.
When you issue a fire alarm using our software-only solutions, such as the Centralized Fire Panel Manager, a number of alerts are sent and class locations can be checked in an instant from one central dashboard. First responders will receive re-programmable, automatic messaging, with location accuracy and faster response times. Students and staff will hear (and see) clear messaging for what to do next via integrated intercoms, LED signs, PC pop-ups and the LSIMobile app. Also from the LSIMobile app, administrators can easily receive notifications from staff as to the location of their class when they are in a safe place or if they need assistance.
Visual or audio alarms for Deaf & Blind schools
Did you know that Layered Solutions actually got their start by providing technology solutions and mass notifications for Deaf & Blind schools? We’ve since expanded our services to traditional K-12 schools and higher education, healthcare and commercial clients, but we still have a special fondness for making communication accessible to all.
We can help clients make live or prerecorded video announcements to specific or all visual end points in a building or district, as well as providing audible or video two-way communication, even using existing/legacy systems. For clients with Deaf audiences, our visual end points can include LED Signage/HD marquee boards, RGB strobe lighting (which flash specific colors for specific events), digital signage on displays or monitors, PC Alert and the LSIMobile App. For those trying to reach blind staff or students, we can enable existing analog end points, IP end points and LED sign/speaker combo units.
Real LSI clients talk fire prevention & preparedness
If your emergency preparedness or crisis management plan is in a binder and it’s unclear if staff, substitutes and students know what to do, it’s time to fix that with our integrated solutions. Our fire prevention and emergency alerts provide an automated plan, clear multimedia alerts and instructions to reach everyone and ultimately faster response times. “With LSI, we’ve been able to cut our response time probably in half because everything is so automated,” said Tony Rizzi, Franklin Township Safety Specialist. “[First responders] don’t even have to think about calling us because the system does it for them.”
And as Tyler Knight, Franklin Township Director of Information Technology, explains, “You could put together guidelines and policy books and everything that explains exactly how to respond and who to notify when and how. But what we noticed a lot of times was people would get notified out of order or not at all.” Let us help you keep staff, students and families safer with our mass notification software and integrated fire prevention technology.
Contact Layered Solutions today or schedule your online demo to learn how we can help you reach more people faster, with less effort.