Western States Fire Protection - Colorado (Denver)
The current Western States Fire Protection Colorado group servicing Denver and the surrounding areas comprises two offices, located in Centennial and Glenwood Springs, Colorado. This fire protection group actually started 25 years ago as Northstar Fire Protection in Dallas, and expanded to handle the growing fire protection needs in the Denver area. Dwon Lewis was the first manager; Tom Coakley is the current area manager. Tom has extensive experience in the fire protection field, starting with WSFP as a Project Manager in 1998 and advancing to area manager in 2007.
There are 150 employees between the two offices, making this Western States Fire Protection group the largest branch. There are 8 salesmen (for contract work and the service side), 60 fitters, approximately 20 inspectors, along with alarm and detection (A&D) technicians, foremen, and office support personnel. The contract salesmen have over 100 years' combined experience in the fire protection field; the service salesmen have a total of over 80 years' expertise. Non-contract service work comprises 70% of the total work of the area, with the balance being contract work. Contract work includes local area hospitals, convention centers, health care facilities and the like.
The WSFP group in the Denver area considers life and safety extremely important in terms of providing a high quality end product and exemplary service work to all customers and clients, no matter how large or how small. Tom Coakley's group is extremely proud to offer a full service, one-stop operation that competitors can't match in width and breadth of service capabilities. Areas of the business that are growing are the Alarm & Detection (A&D) Division, as well as the sprinklers group. Western States Fire Protection service rates are competitive.
As mentioned above, WSFP Denver has worked on a number of high-profile projects, either as a sub-contractor to the general contractor, or as the prime contractor. Western States Fire Protection has worked on numerous projects for the Denver Public Schools, as well as RTD (Regional Transportation District) Denver construction jobs.
Western States Fire Protection Denver is a board member of the Colorado Fire Protection Association. In addition, WSFP Denver is a co-sponsor of a charity golf outing called Mason's Wish, and participates in many other local charity events and charities, including raising money for the CFPA Burn Center and the Denver Jail Courthouse Project.
In Colorado, there is a continuous ongoing concern with fire sprinkler systems freezing. WSFP Denver can evaluate a system and work with the customer to correct any problems. Western States Fire Protection Denver can also handle any size retrofit, no matter how complex. With a thorough knowledge of the different fire codes and regulations throughout the various regional municipalities, WSFP Denver can handle whatever is needed. Western States Fire Protection Denver also offers single-family residential systems at an affordable cost, based on the 2011 International Residential Code. Western States Fire Protection Denver can also repair or replace outdated alarm systems that fail, especially during thunderstorms.
What's in store for the future of WFSP Denver? Tom Coakley expects new product offerings, such as Radio Monitoring, will become more prevalent. After storms like Hurricane Katrina and other natural disasters, many telephone lines were down, rendering fire alarm systems useless. Using dedicated radio frequencies and backup power systems, radio monitoring can be more reliable than conventional alarm systems. Unlike the competition, Western States Fire Protection Denver has dedicated monitoring stations owned and operated by WSFP Denver, ensuring rapid response. Other trends foreseen include annual building inspections (a big push for these from the insurance companies), and more detailed record keeping of annual inspections.
