Locals say out of the ground the steam rises as though the city was ready to erupt! A dramatic scene, but the subterranean geothermal energy that roars beneath your feet bears zero relation to the cause of your office, flat, or restaurant going up in flames. A dodgy wiring job, an overloaded fuse box or an unwatched burner – anything can start a fire, just like any other city in NZ 
A local fire protection specialist's first job is knowing the buildings they're responsible for. A wooden lakeside lodge is nothing like a crowded backpacker complex packed with visitors oblivious to evacuation routes. Rotorua's famous geothermal spas that put this city on the map, with consistently high humidity that would degrade a high quality fire alarm within just a few months - they each require very different strategies of fire protection. Fire extinguishers are typically the first thing anyone considers; yet they aren't a "one size fits all" solution. Your hot water cylinder or the server room really calls for such an enormous and costly unit designed specifically for liquid or oil fires only, although a dry chemical extinguisher would do a better job in that case. Did you know it's important to remember that the restaurant kitchen at your popular backpackers hostel now ranks as a serious risk, and needs a wet fire protection companies saskatoon chemical model rated for any liquid cooking oils during a fire (Class F)? The humble sprinkler system is rarely appreciated until it's the hero of a disaster. Rotorua's mineral-rich water cause calcification in the sprinkler system's pipes, which means that annual flow test is a must, not a nice-to-have - it's the ultimate deterrent to financial catastrophe. Fire alarm systems too often sit forgotten with tests seldom carried out - it was installed and then forgotten. That gap in awareness might mean an ageing battery installed years back has stopped working. A yearly check-up will catch these issues - before it turns into anything that makes the news. There's also the yearly requirement that comes with running a building - your Building Warrant of Fitness (BWoF). Scrambling as you try to arrange an inspection too late will not only cause you stressful hours, it will usually and always result in the building not meeting the standard. A reliable contractor, however, will track every deadline, and carry out all the appropriate documentation before the Building Warrant of Fitness due date arrives at your door with your landlord glaring over the fence. Do not forget arguably the weakest link in fire safety, however - your staff. Employees, for instance, with proximity that shifts from inches to feet to yards from open flames or electrical risks, may not know how to use the fire extinguisher, or for that matter, manage to use the fire blanket kept nearby. A brief ten-minute briefing on containing a deep-fat fryer fire does more than all attractive instruction posters.