FIRE & LIFE SAFETY INDUSTRY REPORT
Uncover the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities in fire protection in 2025.
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Key Findings
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Fire protection professionals will continue to face many of the challenges identified in this report, all of which will demand innovative solutions and a renewed commitment to fire safety.
Whether we’re protecting lives, preserving properties, or ensuring regulatory compliance, reports like this help us better understand the impact industry and societal changes — and the rapid pace of technological advancements — will have on fire and life safety so we can fine-tune and specialize strategies to adapt and defend to the world around us.
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2024-2025 EDITION
We surveyed more than 400 professionals from fire and life safety companies at every level to get an in-depth look at some of the most common challenges our industry faces today and to learn more about what fire industry professionals are doing to overcome them.
We hear from our customers about many of the challenges fire protection businesses face, from problems finding and retaining skilled employees to having access to the right tools and resources to get jobs done quickly, so we wanted to equip our industry with in-depth insights to get ahead.
Whether you’re a CEO running a fire and life safety business or in the field as a fire protection contractor, fire safety consultant, engineer, or inspector, this report is an important piece of a complex puzzle that illuminates how we can overcome shared challenges to ensure reliable fire protection and safer communities for everyone.
IS HIRING QUALIFIED TECHNICIANS A CHALLENGE?
A persistent trend across field service industries is the skilled trades gap. Last year, in the inaugural Fire & Life Safety Report, we shared how hiring was a significant challenge for those we surveyed—with 72% of respondents saying hiring was a top three challenge for their business. This year, it’s cropped up once again, with over 50% of all respondents naming it a significant or serious challenge.
This issue isn’t unique to any specific trade, industry focus, business size, or business characteristic. Across the board, respondents noted that hiring qualified technicians and inspectors was a major challenge for their business.
Even with all the technological advancements of the last several decades, many fire protection businesses surveyed still use pen and paper or manual spreadsheets to conduct their operations.
A significant number of espondents—including those who use various software solutions to manage their workflow—named managing paper documents and records a significant or serious challenge to their business.
That means that even among businesses that have begun modernizing their processes and implementing technology at various points in their workflow, paper documentation is still a problem.
MANAGING PAPER DOCUMENTS AND OTHER RECORDS
One challenge that received a higher-than-average rating is “lengthy collection times.” Almost a quarter of all respondents labeled it as significant or serious, and many said they were monitoring the problem. The slow shift away from paper and to modern technology has eliminated some of the process-based friction we have historically seen in fire protection. But, even as companies rely on technology for more aspects of their workflow, the weight of paper hasn’t been fully lifted yet.
