Don't Let Your Fire Safety Budget Go Up in Flames

The main stage at Fixed Summit 2026 kicked off with one of the most important — and most under-discussed — topics in multifamily property management: fire and life safety.

Led by Cerwin Thompson (VP of Facilities, RPM Living) and Rick Picquet (Director of Maintenance, Bell Partners), with special guests Bret Gundersen (National Account Manager, BRK/Resideo) and Michael Pigg (CEO & Owner, Premier Fire Protection), the session was equal parts energetic, eye-opening, and urgent.

Here's what every maintenance professional, regional manager, and property owner in the room needed to hear.

You Are the First Line of Defense

The session opened with a powerful reminder: maintenance teams aren't just fixing work orders. They are the frontline defenders of fire and life safety in their communities.

"You are the reason why we are here today. Residents see you, they look at you to solve their problems. You hold a tremendous amount of knowledge — and with that comes a very strong sense of responsibility." — Cerwin Thomas, VP of Facilities, RPM Living 

Every day — whether walking the grounds, responding to a resident call, or conducting a routine inspection — maintenance professionals are managing risk. That means seeing something, saying something, and above all, documenting it.

The message was clear: documentation isn't bureaucracy. It's protection — for residents, for teams, and for the organizations they work for.

The Numbers Are Stark

Michael Pigg of Premier Fire Protection didn't sugarcoat the state of fire safety in multifamily housing:

1. 1.76,000 fires per year occur in multifamily settings — high rises and garden-style apartments alike
2. Fires across all properties cause nearly 20 billion dollars in damage in the U.S. each year.
3. 9% of all fire-related deaths occur in multifamily properties
4. An estimated 1 in 5 residential smoke and CO alarms are currently inactive or non-functional

"Fire doesn't wait for next month's budget. It's a second-spark-and-catastrophe situation. Fire protection systems are the only thing standing between safety and total loss." — Michael Pigg

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The Hidden Risks Teams Miss Every Day

The panel walked through the most common — and most preventable — fire safety failures happening across the industry right now:

1. ‍Outdated equipment and skipped inspections. Corroded sprinkler heads, inspection tags from 2013 or 2018, alarms that haven't been updated in years. These aren't edge cases — they're widespread.
2. Uncertified technicians. Many fire safety inspections are being performed by technicians with no real certification, sent out at low hourly rates to put a sticker on a panel and move on. The result? Missed issues, false compliance, and real liability.‍
3. Painted sprinkler heads. One of the most common — and dangerous — recurring problems in the industry. Painters and restoration companies regularly coat sprinkler heads without realizing (or caring about) the consequences. Bell Partners tackled this directly by adding contractual accountability clauses that hold painters financially responsible for any heads found painted after their work. The result: a dramatic reduction in incidents year over year.‍
4. Insurance exposure. If a fire occurs and carriers discover that inspections were neglected, systems were outdated, or known issues were ignored — claims can be denied outright. And if direct knowledge of a problem is established, legal consequences follow.

"Currently in Oxnard, California, there's a property manager, a regional manager, and a maintenance professional all sitting behind bars — because they had direct knowledge of a fire life safety issue and failed to act." — Michael Pigg, CEO & Owner, Premier Fire Protection

What's New in Alarm Technology

Bret Gundersen from BRK/Resideo gave attendees a look at the next generation of smoke and CO alarm technology designed to reduce the PTSD-inducing 3 a.m. battery chirp — and more importantly, to improve actual safety outcomes.

Key innovations coming to market:

1. Visual LED status indicators — green for power on, yellow for low battery, red for active alarm. No more dismantling units to figure out what's going on.‍
2. 4-day advanced low battery warning — a soft, gentle sound that begins days before the standard low battery chirp kicks in, giving maintenance teams time to respond before residents are disturbed.
3. ‍New UL standard chirp patterns — universal alarm signals now required to follow specific patterns so residents and teams can immediately identify the type of alert.

The goal: fewer nuisance calls, more proactive maintenance, and higher confidence that alarms are actually working.

The Budget Problem No One Wants to Talk About

One of the most practical segments of the session was a live demonstration of Premier Fire Protection's fire safety budget calculator — built to help maintenance teams and property managers bring accurate, defensible numbers to owners and operators.

The key insight: a surprise budget is a failed budget.

Off-cycle UL sampling costs that sit at $15,000–$20,000 today can triple to $40,000–$50,000 if delayed. Five-year certifications, fire door testing, and sprinkler head inspections all have real costs — and when owners are presented with them for the first time at the 11th hour, the instinct is to cut corners.

The antidote is preparation: detailed inspection reports, 10-year budget forecasts, and showing owners not what fire safety costs, but what a fire costs.

"Prevention costs thousands. A fire costs millions. And if there's found liability? You're talking losses that dwarf whatever you would have spent on a proper inspection." — Michael Pigg

Three Roles, Three Responsibilities

The session closed with a clear framework for how fire life safety accountability flows through an organization:

1. Maintenance Techs & Managers: Document everything. See something, say something — and write it down. You are not responsible for fixing every problem, but you are responsible for escalating it. Your documentation protects you.
2. Regional & Corporate Managers: Read the reports. Your job is not to be the decision-maker — it's to make sure information reaches the people who are. If something is flagged and it sits unread in your inbox, you share the liability.
3. Owners & Operators: Fund it. Avoid the cheap quote. The rag-tag company charging half the price is not saving you money — they're creating exposure. The ROI on proper fire safety investment is not complicated: pay now, or pay exponentially more later.

The Unsung Heroes of Fire & Life Safety

Fire and life safety isn't a compliance checkbox. It's a daily practice — and the people in that room at Fixed Summit are the ones making it happen on the ground, one property at a time.

As Cerwin put it: "You guys are the unsung heroes."

Fixed Summit exists to make sure they're not unsung for any longer.

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