The Fire Protection Technicians Network

TECH TIP!

You'll very quickly realize that our forms are inspired by (and drawn from) those authored by Larry Barker when he managed the fire protection department at ASTTBC.  If you decide to use the ASTTBC forms, please ensure you make the changes we suggest in order to reduce your potential personal liability exposure. Your employer should be willing to incorporate these changes.

First of all, remember that in most cases you are working for a LIMITED or INCORPORATED company and your signature must always appear BELOW the company's name. Example:

123 Fire & Safety Ltd.

Sebastian B. Short, RFPT
Technician

Secondly, never sign anything in which you aren't seen to be representing the company you're working for. Avoid the use of the "first person" (such as in this phrase):

“I state that the information on this form is correct at the time and place of my inspection, and that all equipment was tested in conformance with applicable codes and the Manufacturers requirements and at this time was left in operational condition upon completion of this inspection except as noted in comments.” -- ASTTBC

Instead, we would suggest a small alteration to:

The information on this form (and in the documents attached hereto) attests to the fact that the equipment listed herein has been tested/inspected in conformance with applicable codes, bylaws, standards, and the manufacturer’s requirements by a qualified technician. The equipment was left in an operational condition except as noted in the spaces marked “comments”.

About OUR Fire Alarm Inspection, Building Life Safety Inspection & Fire Alarm Verification Forms:

One of the first things you'll notice is that we've combined the Fire Alarm Inspection Form, the Fire Extinguisher Annual Inspection Form, the Unit Emergency Lighting Inspection Form and the Sprinkler Systems Inspection Form into one document entitled the Building Life Safety Inspection Form (or Building Annual Inspection Form). Another thing you'll notice is that the front page of the annual inspection form (page 2 of the verification form) incorporates a section about the fire alarm communicator that's pretty detailed. You have to feel comfortable with ensuring that the communicator is installed correctly and be familiar enough with what it does to properly test it. In order to help you with this, we've provided a comprehensive guide to communicators in the Tips section of our Library. How many of you are aware that every ULC/UL fire alarm panel has to be equipped with "dress panels" (also called "dead fronts")? How many of you are actually checking to see that the smoke detectors installed with the system are actually compatible with it? A lot of this material is available to you here without paying a membership fee because we feel that there is information you must know and other information you may want to know (to make your job easier). You'll find the latter in our Members section.

We've separated the fire alarm annunciator and battery testing page from the body of the fire alarm inspection form provided by ASTTBC. This facilitates being able to include multiple annunciators, power supplies, and standby battery packs so as to make their individual testing results much easier to document. If you are testing a panel with four sets of batteries and four power supplies (for example) you have only to duplicate this page to document the results.

The new PDF files have blank spaces for the page numbers. All you have to do is fill in the company contact information and you're "off". If you have any problems downloading these files, please give us a call.

The most important thing to realize about ANY form you find here is that they are constantly undergoing revision and additions. We want you to deliver the highest level of inspection detail possible regardless of whom it might be that you're working for (or with). This is why it's important for you to consider an annual membership so that we can inform you if there have been changes or additions. If you have a concern, or want to suggest an addition, revision, or inclusion, then please, contact us!

Note:  While the forms you find here are free to download, we would appreciate your considering the environment if you do decide to print them by eliminating the pages you don’t need.