November 12, 2020

How UL Certification Helps First Responders

Each year, an estimated 240 million emergency calls are made in the United States, which has over 3 million first responders working daily to save lives. When first responders enter an emergency situation, there are many unknowns and they need to be able to communicate with each other effectively at all times, which requires ubiquitous connectivity inside a structure and the surrounding areas.

When there’s an emergency in a building, such as a fire or active shooting, first responders rely on public safety bands to communicate with one another via their land mobile radios (LMR). Faulty or insufficient communication systems within the building can be detrimental to both the emergency professionals, and those they are trying to help. For this reason, Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJs) enforce and interpret mandatory code requirements for their jurisdictions from the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the International Code Council (ICC).

UL 2524, second edition, is the latest standard for in-building repeaters, transmitters, receivers, signal booster components, remote annunciators and operational consoles, power supplies, and battery charging capabilities. Products meeting UL 2524 second edition standards are top line public safety offerings building owners can deploy.

AHJs are increasingly setting UL 2524 as the standard requirement for all in-building two-way public safety systems. UL 2524 listed/certified products specify many of these codes in a single mandate following Model Building and Installation Codes: NFPA 1, NFPA 72, NFPA 101, NFPA 1221, and the International Fire Code (IFC). Without these code requirements, first responders may be unable to properly communicate on their mobile radios, inhibiting their ability to assist during an emergency.

Recently, ADRF’s PSR-U and BBx-U series of public safety repeaters and battery backups became the first products to be Listed/Certified to UL 2524, second edition and receive the new UL Enhanced Smart Mark. We are proud of the work our teams have done to achieve this certification and provide building owners and first responders with reliable systems for public safety.

To learn more about ADRF’s UL 2524 certificated products, click HERE. For quick facts about UL 2524, check out our infographic below: