Covered when your system isn't.
When a fire alarm or sprinkler system goes down, code requires a fire watch — and the clock is running. A&M provides dependable, properly logged fire watch coverage, fast to mobilize, so your property stays compliant and protected until the system is back online.
When you need a fire watch
- Alarm or sprinkler impairment
- Hot work & construction
- Events & temporary coverage
Compliant, logged, dependable.
Rapid mobilize
Call us the moment your system goes down — we get personnel on site fast to keep you compliant.
Active patrols & logs
Documented patrols at the required intervals, with a clean log your AHJ and ownership can rely on.
Coverage until restored
We stay until your system is back online and the impairment is cleared.
Fire watch is quoted per situation (duration, property size, coverage required) rather than a flat rate. Call and we'll mobilize.
The system is down. The obligation isn't.
When a sprinkler or alarm system goes out of service, the building doesn't get a grace period. Your authority having jurisdiction and your insurance carrier will generally require continuous fire watch until the system is restored — and the specifics are set locally, so confirm them with your fire marshal.
Coverage is the immediate question
Carriers commonly treat an unprotected impairment as a material change in risk. Whether that affects a claim is between you and your carrier, but it's the first thing anyone asks after an incident — and "we were waiting on a vendor" is not an answer that helps.
Occupancy can come into question
Depending on the building, the occupancy type and the AHJ, an unprotected system can escalate quickly toward restrictions you really don't want to explain to residents or tenants. Posting watch promptly is what keeps a maintenance problem from becoming an occupancy problem.
The clock starts before you're ready
Impairments rarely happen at a convenient hour. A contractor cuts a line, a pump fails, a panel goes down on a Friday evening — and coverage is needed now, not Monday. Mobilization speed is most of the value in this service.
A body on site is not fire watch. The log is.
When the impairment closes out, nobody asks whether someone was there. They ask for the record. If the patrol log is thin, missing intervals, or was filled in at the end of the shift, the watch may as well not have happened.
Trained, briefed personnel
Staff who know the patrol route, what they're looking for, where the pull stations and extinguishers are, and exactly who to call in what order. Briefed on your building specifically, not handed a clipboard at the gate.
Documented patrol rounds
Time-stamped rounds at the interval your AHJ requires, logged as they happen. That log is the deliverable — it's what demonstrates the watch was maintained continuously rather than nominally.
A defined escalation path
Agreed before the first shift: who gets called, in what order, for what. Fire department, your on-call maintenance, property management, the system contractor. Decided in advance, not improvised at 3am.
Continuous coverage until restoration
Shifts scheduled to cover the full impairment without gaps, including handovers. A watch with a two-hour hole in it is not a watch, and the log will show it.
The situations that put you here.
Sprinkler impairment
System drained for repair, a failed pump, a damaged line, or a planned shutdown for renovation work.
Alarm or panel out of service
Detection down for repair, replacement or upgrade, including the interim period during a panel changeover.
Hot work
Welding, cutting or roofing that requires watch during the work and for a period afterward.
Water supply interruption
Main breaks or municipal work that takes the supply feeding your system offline.
Construction and renovation
Phases where protection is partially disabled or not yet commissioned in a building still occupied.
Events and assembly
Occupancy changes or temporary configurations where the AHJ requires standby coverage.
How fire watch is priced.
Staffing services price on hours, but the inputs that set those hours are worth understanding before you're comparing quotes at short notice.
Coverage hours
Continuous around-the-clock coverage versus overnight-only or during-work-only. The single largest driver, and the one your AHJ effectively decides for you.
Personnel required
Building size, number of structures and patrol route length determine whether one watcher can maintain the required interval or whether you need more than one on shift.
Patrol interval
A shorter required round means more ground covered per hour and, on a large property, more people. This comes from your AHJ rather than from us.
Notice
Emergency mobilization within hours costs more than coverage scheduled around a planned shutdown. Where the impairment is planned, tell us early and it's cheaper.
Duration
A two-day repair and a three-week system replacement price differently per hour. Extended impairments get a rate that reflects the commitment.
Shift pattern
Overnight, weekend and holiday coverage carries a premium, because staffing it does. Quoted per situation rather than as a flat published rate.
If your system is down right now, call. We'll get coverage moving first and settle the paperwork behind it.
Fire watch questions we get.
We mobilize as fast as staffing and travel allow, and we treat impairments as genuine emergencies at any hour. Call and we'll tell you honestly when someone can be standing on your property — not an optimistic number that leaves you uncovered.
That determination sits with your authority having jurisdiction and your insurance carrier, and requirements vary by locality, building and occupancy type. We're not the ones who decide it and we won't tell you that you need it when you don't. Confirm with your fire marshal, and if watch is required we'll cover it.
A time-stamped patrol log covering every round for the full duration of the watch, logged as rounds happen. It's what you hand your AHJ or carrier when the impairment closes out, and it's the entire reason this service has value beyond having a person present.
Yes. We build a shift rotation covering the full duration with proper handovers, so there are no gaps between shifts. Extended impairments are quoted at a rate reflecting the commitment rather than repeated emergency pricing.
Yes, and a certificate of insurance is available on request for your file. Given the circumstances that bring you to this service, that paperwork tends to matter more here than anywhere else we work.
Please do. Planned impairments — system replacements, renovations, scheduled hot work — are cheaper to staff and easier to cover properly when we know in advance. Emergency mobilization is available because it has to be, not because it's the better way to buy this.
We can be on site fast.
Call now and we'll get coverage moving.