Fire Safety
Ordering a taxi, paying for food, tracking your heart rate, or getting directions, the variety of mobile apps available have made smartphones an essential tool in our day-to-day lives.
As of 2021, 88% of all adults in the UK owned a smartphone, with research predicting this will grow to reach 95% by 2025. Adopting a mobile-first approach in social housing through the use of end-user apps can provide tenants with a more convenient and engaging way to be aware of their safety risks at home, such as fire, carbon monoxide, or the potential presence of dampness and mould.
Insight collected and shared through these apps can also support landlords in working more efficiently, by using real-time data to pinpoint properties or residents at risk and enabling proactive intervention.
With mobiles so ubiquitous in our communities, installers and contractors working for housing associations can now experience a mobile-first approach with FireAngel’s range of apps.
Using FireAngel’s free Installer mobile app, installers can fit and deploy a network of smoke, heat, and carbon monoxide (CO) alarms and even Zigbee sensors with a FireAngel Gateway in just a matter of minutes.
Once in a property, an installer can add the Gateway details and register it to the FireAngel Connected platform. Using Smart RF technology, which enables wireless communication through Intelligent Radio Frequency (RF) technology, the alarms are ready to pair within minutes and will become visible in the Installer app.
Zigbee is an open standard, supported by a wide range of devices, applications, and manufacturers, which makes it easy to add new devices to a Zigbee network and to integrate with the FireAngel platform. This scalability can support landlords in future-proofing properties and adapting to changing resident needs as part of a long-term digital transformation strategy in social housing.
Zigbee sensors can be easily onboarded through the Installer app, due to the inbuilt Zigbee capability of FireAngel’s Home Environment Gateway, specifically designed for the social housing market.
After installation, the app can then be used to support and maintain a resident’s network with remote access and monitoring of devices available. Photographs of installed alarms can be uploaded in the app with the ability to add locations and labels for future reference or audits, supporting compliance with Hackitt’s Golden Thread of building information.
In an industry-first approach, the Installer app uses NFC Sync-It™ technology to quickly and quietly extract diagnostics from FireAngel’s FA3328-EUT CO alarm. NFC, standing for near‑field communication, is a short‑range wireless technology used to transfer information between devices through wireless communication, by holding a phone against a device. It’s the same trusted technology used for mobile payments.
FireAngel’s new app Connected, assists end-users such as residents in managing their fire risk through Predict® integration whilst offering features that support independent living.
Using the free app, residents can remotely test all interlinked alarms without the need to climb stepladders or find a broom, ideal for more vulnerable residents.
With interlinking alarms, when one sounds, all the alarms sound, to enable a resident time to take immediate action and reduce the risk. In such an event, when using the Connected app residents will receive a notification and can silence alarms from their phone to leave only the initiating device sounding.
The app also supports the creation of multiple credential access for family members so that Predict® fire risk visibility, along with the ability to monitor the risk level stratification of a property, is available to all.
A step-change in the fire industry, FireAngel Predict® protects residents, properties, and communities from preventable fire risks using unrivaled insight. Predict® is the only tool of its kind in the market that uses AI to identify high-risk behaviours behind closed doors, providing housing teams with the opportunity to stage interventions and reduce the probability of a future fire occurring.
FireAngel’s Connected app supports the provision to add multiple properties, such as for vulnerable family members or neighbours, so that residents’ Predict® risk levels can be monitored in real-time with a Safe and Well visit from local Fire & Rescue Services arranged if required.
The app engages residents with easy access to damp and mould risk in their property, displaying the same information landlords can view on the Connected dashboard, before its probable onset to support proactive prevention. This is enabled using the data from inbuilt temperature and humidity sensors in the Home Environment Gateway.
Details of recent events, such as low-level CO, Gateway internet connection, alarm initiation, or devices being off the base are also available on the homepage of the Connected app to ensure key safety aspects are not missed.
To find out how FireAngel’s range of end-user and installer-facing apps can support a mobile-first approach as part of a long-term digital transformation strategy, or to discover more about FireAngel Predict®, please get in touch with our team of specialists.
