Rural Property Watch announces the launch of a new self-powered alarm system to protect barns against fire, flood and theft.

In an attempt to help rural communities fight the threat of barn arson, specialist security provider Rural Property Watch announced today the launch of a new self-powered wireless barn alarm system designed to reduce response times dramatically. Calling on years of experience in delivering niche rural security solutions, Rural Property Watch has witnessed first-hand the devastating consequences of fire in remote settings.
“When you’re in an industry like farming or agriculture, some of your most valuable assets are stored in remote buildings away from living space,” explains John Hicks, Managing Director of Rural Property Watch. “But many landowners don’t invest in the unique kind of protection that these buildings need. Fires go unnoticed and, even when the fire is identified and reported, it’s often too late for effective response from the fire service.”
When a fire is started in a barn, the building itself and likely contents including fuel and hay rapidly accelerate the spread of flames. In as little as thirty minutes, a building and the assets within it can be destroyed entirely. As a result, landowners have a very small window of opportunity during which they can successfully gain control of the fire and protect the assets that they depend on to do business. The new wireless, self-powered alarms from Rural Property Watch are installed to give landowners the chance to seize this moment of opportunity.
“When a fire starts, time isn’t on your side,” says Hicks. “Entire livelihoods can be razed to the ground in well under an hour. Our self-powered alarms are quick to configure, affordable to run, and suitable for installation regardless of how remote an outbuilding or barn is, even where there is no electricity supply or telephone line.”
Once a wireless barn alarm system is installed, the expert staff at Rural Property Watch can configure the system to wirelessly contact landowners or farmers in the event of a fire. Using GSM and GPRS technology, alarms can instantly send an SMS text message to up to ten individual mobile phone numbers, giving farmers a much longer period of time during which they can act to stop the fire as it develops. Alternatively, wireless barn alarms can report to Rural Property Watch’s centralised Control Centre, where security staff can attempt to contact the landowner by telephone, or deploy an emergency response team as necessary.
“We’re committed to giving our clients the protection they need, with the flexibility that they require,” adds Hicks. “We routinely devise custom implementations of our wireless barn alarms to suit the specific needs of farmers and landowners. We can also configure our barn alarms to monitor for signs of flooding or intrusion, giving the rural community complete peace of mind with just one convenient device.”
Rural Property Watch will join a number of businesses which include Dorset Fire and Rescue, the Dorset Police, Crimestoppers, NFU Mutual, Kingston Maurward College and Porter Dodson Solicitors at a major Crime Prevention event at Kingston Maurward College near Dorchester on 27 April 2012, to help enhance awareness and provide practical possible solutions across the rural community.
Rural Property Watch will be demonstrating this and other new state-of-the-art technologies now available to work alongside experienced security staff and intelligent, reliable consultations, which enable Rural Property Watch now to, more able than ever, help farmers, landowners and equestrian centres protect their buildings, their assets and, ultimately, their livelihoods.
More information about Rural Property Watch is available from their website www.ruralpropertywatch.co.uk or contact their National Customer Contact Centre on 0845 862 0844 (UK local rate call charges apply).
