Midwest Alarm Services - Greater Des Moines

The NFPA recently approved Tentative Interim Amendment No. 1869 to NFPA 101, the Life Safety Code. This update explicitly details how facilities can safely incorporate portable and fixed weapons detection systems into required building egress paths without violating life safety or evacuation codes.

For facility directors and security managers, this clarification removes a major operational headache. Security technologies and fire safety codes must work together, not against each other. When a life safety infrastructure is truly integrated, your automated exit pathways, access control, and advanced perimeter detection systems function as a single, coordinated network. Our engineering teams design to these exact national compliance standards to protect your occupants while securing your perimeter.

Review the official, final amendment text directly from the National Fire Protection Association here: https://hubs.la/Q04k7hQt0

June is National Safety Month. For facility managers and commercial building owners, maintaining a fire alarm system is often treated as a compliance checklist item to pass an annual inspection. However, system reliability requires more than a signature on a form.

True protection depends on the clear pathways between your detection hardware, your notification infrastructure, and your 24/7 monitoring link. Gaps between independent systems are where failures occur during an emergency. A unified lifecycle approach ensures your building performs exactly when needed.

Review your facility life safety posture with our integration team, contact us today: https://hubs.la/Q04jMS4h0

In a busy healthcare facility, not every alert requires the same response. A patient call from Room 214 should reach the assigned nurse directly, not trigger an overhead announcement across the entire unit.

When alert routing is poorly configured or the system lacks integration with mobile devices, caregivers spend time chasing notifications instead of responding to patients. The result is slower response times, increased alarm fatigue, and added stress on already stretched staff.

Midwest Alarm Services designs and installs nurse call systems that route alerts intelligently, to the right caregiver, on the right device, whether that is a mobile phone, SIP phone, or staff station. Our systems integrate with your existing clinical workflow and scale from basic tone-visual setups to fully networked voice and touchscreen platforms.

Learn more about our nurse call solutions: https://hubs.la/Q04hxnxg0

Healthcare facilities are increasingly dependent on connected technology, from electronic health records and medical devices to security systems and real-time communications. When that infrastructure is poorly designed or inconsistently implemented, the consequences extend beyond IT. They affect patient care, compliance, and operational continuity.

BICSI recently published ANSI/BICSI 004-2025, an updated standard for ICT systems design and implementation in healthcare facilities. The standard addresses growing system convergence, increased reliance on wireless and connected devices, and the need for coordinated design across multiple disciplines.

For healthcare facility managers and administrators, this is a signal that the bar for infrastructure planning is rising. Systems that were designed in isolation, including security, communications, and life safety, are increasingly expected to be coordinated from the start.

At Midwest Alarm Services, that integrated approach is how we work.

Read the full announcement: https://hubs.la/Q04hyjMF0

BICSI Publishes ANSI/BICSI 004-2025 to Strengthen ICT Design Standards in Healthcare Infrastructure /PRNewswire/ -- As healthcare systems become increasingly dependent on connected technologies, the performance of information and communications technology...

Today we pause to honor the men and women who gave their lives in service to this country. Their sacrifice is the reason we have the freedom to do the work we do and live in the communities we serve.

From everyone at Midwest Alarm Services, thank you.

Most fire alarm conversations jump straight to Section 907 of IBC Chapter 9. But the sections that come before it shape nearly every decision a contractor, AHJ, or building owner makes on a project.

In Episode 5 of Code Corner with Dan Decker, Engineering Manager Nicole Hickman and Industry Affairs Manager Dan Decker walk through IBC Chapter 9, Sections 901, 903, and 904, covering what Chapter 9 actually requires beyond fire alarms, the non-required system exception and what it means for partial installations, why MIY (Monitor It Yourself) systems are explicitly prohibited under Section 903, how a significant 2024 IBC change places strobe responsibility on fire alarm contractors, and how alternate suppression systems under Section 904 connect back to the fire alarm system.

The episode also closes with a preview of Section 907.2, where the code finally answers the question every contractor wants answered: when is a fire alarm actually required?

Watch Episode 5: https://hubs.la/Q04hycm40

May is National Building Safety Month. For facility managers and building owners, it is a useful prompt to step back from day-to-day operations and ask: if something went wrong in this building right now, would every system perform as intended?

Not just the fire alarm. The access control. The emergency communication. The monitoring. The inspection records.

Each of those systems has its own maintenance schedule, its own vendor, and its own point of failure. When they are designed and maintained independently, the gaps between them are where problems tend to show up.

Midwest Alarm Services handles the full scope of commercial life safety, from integrated system design through installation, inspection, and 24/7 monitoring. One partner, accountable for the whole system.

If you have not reviewed your facility's life safety posture recently, this month is a reasonable place to start.

Request a free quote: https://hubs.la/Q04h1q-T0

When a serious emergency occurs, a single announcement over an overhead speaker is rarely sufficient. People may be away from their desk, outside, in a loud environment, or unable to hear the system at all.

Effective emergency communication means reaching every person in your facility through multiple channels at the same time: audio alerts over IP speakers and overhead paging, visual alerts on digital signage and desktop pop-ups, and direct notifications via text and mobile app.

Midwest Alarm Services designs and installs mass notification systems that integrate with your existing fire alarm and access control infrastructure, so a single trigger can activate a coordinated response across all channels. Our NICET-certified team conducts facility surveys to identify coverage gaps before they become failures.

Contact us to discuss your facility's emergency communication coverage: https://hubs.la/Q04h15jD0

Today is Peace Officers Memorial Day, a day to honor the law enforcement officers who have given their lives in the line of duty and to recognize those who continue to serve.

At Midwest Alarm Services, we work every day to make sure first responders can do their jobs safely inside the buildings we protect. It's a responsibility we take seriously.

To every officer serving their community: thank you.

NFPA 855, the Standard for the Installation of Stationary Energy Storage Systems, went into effect at the start of 2026. One of the significant new requirements: large-scale fire testing for Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS) to verify that a thermal runaway event in one unit will not propagate to adjacent units.

This matters for commercial facility managers because BESS installations are increasingly common on commercial properties, whether for backup power, peak demand reduction, or sustainability goals. A standard battery fire behaves differently than a lithium-ion thermal runaway event. The heat release rates are higher, the spread is faster, and detection systems not specifically designed for these hazards may not respond adequately.

If your facility has or is planning an energy storage installation, it is worth reviewing your fire alarm system design with a qualified integrator.

Read the full case study: https://hubs.la/Q04g7PhT0

Case study: Large-Scale Fire Testing BESS in accordance with new NFPA 855 standard Mike Watson of Trina Storage shares his experience participating in Large-Scale-Fire Testing (LSFT) of a full-scale 5 MWh Elementa 2 Pro Platform in accordance with NFPA 855.