Brothers Fire Protection earns UL listing

ELK RIVER, Minn.—Brothers Fire Protection announced in April that its fire alarm and life safety team has been granted an Underwriters Laboratory (UL) listing for the company's fire alarm and monitoring services.

“We're very excited,” Stephen Cieslukowski, president of the 75-employee company, which is based here, told Security Systems News. “It's a huge milestone for us.”

The accreditation is the highest level a fire alarm company can achieve, he said. He praised the team led by general manager Rick Halloran for its time and effort to earn the listing.

The effort took about two years and required months of review and on site testing by UL, Cieslukowski said.

He said being UL listed will allow Brothers Fire to expand its footprint in a number of Minnesota cities.

“You have to have this UL listing to provide fire alarm services in those cities,” Cieslukowski said.

He said the cities are primarily suburbs of the Twin Cities, and include Brooklyn Park, Brooklyn Center, Burnsville, Chanhassen, Chaska, Coon Rapids, Eden Prairie, Fridley, Golden Valley, Maple Grove, Plymouth, Shakopee, Shorewood and St. Anthony.

The listing carries two big benefits, he said. “It opens up the number of accounts we can solicit and it opens up the market probably by 20- to 30 percent for us. And it also raises our stature. As a UL-compliant company … you can advertise and tell people: 'We've completed these steps and had an independent group review our installation and procedure.'”

Brothers Fire, which has been in business 17 years and is a Siemens distributor, serves Minnesota clients in the Minneapolis and St. Paul area, and also in four other states, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Wisconsin, the company said. In addition to its Elk River headquarters, the company has offices in Duluth and St. Cloud, Minn.

Brothers Fire's business is about 50 percent fire—including fire sprinklers and alarm and suppression systems design, building, installation, inspection and service—and half security, such as cameras and door access. Its focus is multi-unit housing such as apartments, condominiums and townhouses and also commercial and institutional buildings, Cieslukowski said.

He said that in the UL certification process, UL examined the work the company completed this January in the Minnesota Building, a historic 1929 building in downtown St. Paul that Cieslukowski said is more than 20 stories high and which now has 137 residential condos and 10,000 square feet of commercial and retail space.

Brothers Fire won a contract to provide fire alarms, security cameras, rescue equipment, card access/door entry and voice/data systems in the retrofit/rehabilitation project, the company said.