Fire brigades and fire safety technicians check hydrants, extinguishers, fire doors, vehicles and equipment, and they inspect buildings. Without structure, a check is a tick on paper. A defect found in the field can then wait weeks before anyone repairs it.
Make each hydrant and extinguisher an asset
Create an asset for each hydrant, fire extinguisher, fire door and vehicle, with its inventory number as the custom ID. Put a QR code or NFC tag with that ID on it. Link extinguishers and fire doors to the building’s place of interest, and leave vehicles without a location. Each asset then has its own history of checks. See Tracking assets such as bins and vehicles.
Example: a technician scans the QR code on a hydrant, takes a photo of the open valve and picks the tag No defect.
Tag the result of every check
Use tags (previously called types) for the result, such as No defect, Low pressure, Damaged, Blocked access and Missing. Set the result category to require at least one tag, so no check ends without a result. See Grouping tags into categories.
Send hydrant defects to the water utility
The water utility repairs hydrants, so add a tag such as Hydrant defect and alert the utility on it. The recipient needs no Venzeo™ login. The alert goes out when the technician creates the report, not when someone adds the tag later. See Activating an email alert notification.
Plan building inspections as tasks
Create a task for each fire safety inspection of a building. Connect the building’s place of interest, assign the inspector, set the expiration date and list in the description what to check. See Creating and assigning tasks.
Ask building managers for compliance photos by SMS
You cannot visit every building as often as the rules ask. Send the building manager a Venzeo™ Request with photo steps such as “the extinguisher label with its next service date”, “the emergency exit from the inside” and “the fire door closed”. The photos come back with a trusted timestamp and GPS position, so you can see the building is compliant or decide where an inspection is needed. See Requesting photos from someone outside your team by SMS.
Follow up defects with statuses
Use statuses such as Defect found, Repair ordered and Fixed, so the office sees which defects are still open. Every status change stays in the report’s history. See Tracking report progress with statuses.
Which features to use
| Feature | Use it? | How |
|---|---|---|
| Assets | Yes | Hydrants, extinguishers, fire doors and vehicles, each with a QR code |
| Places of interest | Yes | One per building you inspect |
| Tasks | Yes | One per building inspection, with an expiration date |
| Statuses | Yes | Defect found, Repair ordered, Fixed |
| Email alerts | Yes | Hydrant defects to the water utility |
| Projects | Sometimes | One per incident, with the incident number as custom ID, for scene photos |
| Venzeo™ Request | Yes | Compliance photos from building managers, or proof that a defect was repaired |
To send an inspection report to a building owner, see Sharing one report via email.