What is the primary purpose of a fire alarm system?

The primary purpose of a fire alarm system is to alert occupants of a building to evacuate. This system is designed to detect smoke, heat, or fire and sound an alarm to notify individuals inside the structure. The urgency of this function ensures that occupants can respond quickly to a potential fire, allowing them to exit the building safely and efficiently.

While educating the public about fire safety and conducting property risk assessments are important aspects of fire safety management, they are not the main objectives of a fire alarm system. Preventing fires is also essential, but the alarm's core responsibility is to react to a fire incident that has already occurred, rather than to avert it from happening in the first place. Thus, focusing on evacuation alerts is central to the fire alarm's role in protecting lives during a fire emergency.