Episode #90: 2025 Fire & Life Safety Trends, Data, & What’s Next with John Mackey

Executive summary

The fire and life safety industry remained strong in 2025, but activity is shifting from installation toward recurring inspection, testing, maintenance, and deficiency repair. Contractors are increasingly building service-focused or blended service-and-installation businesses, supported by stronger operational systems and reliable data.

Consolidation and investment are expected to continue, while labor shortages make technician recruitment, training, and efficiency critical. AI is seen as a tool to streamline work and improve customer experience—not to replace technicians, who must still physically inspect equipment.

Business trends and strategy

• Build around recurring service: Inspection and testing create repeat customer contact and uncover repair, upgrade, and compliance work. Contractors are increasingly treating service as a foundation for durable business value.
• Balance installation and service: Installation was softening in some regions, while middle-market contractors were moving toward blended business models. The speakers expect installation softness and continued emphasis on service in 2026.
• Prepare for a controlled ownership transition: John Mackey recommends a “built to grow” approach: strengthen the business and its operations so owners can choose among a sale, family succession, or employee transition rather than be forced into an exit by market conditions.
• Preserve local responsiveness while scaling: Consolidation creates opportunities for standardization and scale, but local code requirements and customer relationships remain important. Smaller, nimble contractors can compete by delivering strong local service.
• Invest in people and training: The industry needs to attract and develop more technicians. Capital and technology investments should support better training and faster onboarding, not just expansion.

Operating playbook and frameworks

• Four-part operating foundation: The discussion extends the familiar “people, process, technology” model with data and reporting. Contractors should connect:
  • People and technician capability
  • Documented processes
  • A fit-for-purpose technology stack
  • Consistent data and reporting
• Use a connected tech stack: Key systems include financial reporting, field service management (FSM), CRM, and project management. Together, they help leaders track the business mix, work sources, technician productivity, route density, and project execution.
• Use inspection data to manage the business: Measure how inspections generate deficiencies, proposals, and completed work. The data can inform staffing, service-line priorities, quoting discipline, and operational improvement.
• Improve data consistency: Standardized inspection questions aligned with code requirements can reduce ambiguity and make industry data more comparable. The speakers emphasized “garbage in, garbage out”: consistent collection is necessary for useful analysis.
• Use compliance reporting as a partnership: Third-party platforms can help fire departments and municipalities monitor compliance despite limited resources. Contractors can work with these systems to support community safety and drive timely corrective work.
• Adopt AI ahead of code changes: Apply AI to make inspections more efficient, streamline workflows, improve customer experience, and capture better data. Keep the technician responsible for the physical inspection required by code.

Metrics and KPIs cited

• Inspection-to-proposal dollars: Inspect Point platform data showed about $10 in proposals for every $1 of inspection revenue among leading performers. The broader average was estimated at roughly $5 of proposals per $1 of inspection revenue; the speakers had previously expected a lower ratio. These are proposal dollars, not necessarily won or completed work.
• Proposal approval time: The average time to approve a deficiency quote was about 19 days, trending down from roughly a month toward the 20-day mark. The speakers linked faster action partly to compliance platforms increasing pressure to complete work.
• Deficiency data: The platform recorded about 37,000 failed fire-extinguisher inspections in the year discussed. Pressure gauges were cited as a leading extinguisher issue, though many contractors may replace or recharge units rather than record detailed failure reasons.
• Consolidation: An analyst cited approximately 1,000 industry deals in the prior eight years, with another 1,000 forecast over the following eight. The discussion estimated that more than 10,000 contractors remain in the market.
• Company scale: Mackey described businesses that had grown from roughly $10–25 million in revenue to more than $500 million, and large operators with revenues above $1 billion.
• Technician pay: Survey results were described as clustering around $40 per hour for many technicians, with higher rates in expensive markets. The speakers noted a reported $100-plus-per-hour segment but did not establish how representative it was.
• Industry report timing: Drew said Inspect Point’s next industry report was expected around January 16, 2026; the date was tentative.

Compliance, products, and market dynamics

• Compliance pressure is increasing: Third-party reporting platforms are expanding, and insurance companies are reportedly asking for greater visibility into whether systems are maintained according to code—not only whether approved equipment was installed.
• Inspection findings offer a practical view of risk: Common issues discussed included obstructed or painted sprinkler heads, blocked extinguishers or egress paths, overdue five-year sprinkler internals, alarm-system batteries, and pull stations. Sprinkler-system buildup and obstructions were highlighted as reasons internal inspections matter.
• Investment is reshaping the sector: The speakers noted continued transactions involving contractors, fire-tech and compliance platforms, and equipment businesses. Investment may support more robust software, product innovation, and technician training, although the industry’s code process can slow innovation.
• Local and normalized data could improve industry insight: Platform data can be segmented by system type and standardized inspection questions, potentially allowing comparisons with municipality and fire-marshal data. The speakers cautioned that local data is often not collected consistently.

2026 outlook and recommendations

• Expect continued installation softness in some markets and further movement toward recurring service.
• Expect M&A to continue, with increasing activity in the middle market as well as ongoing investor interest.
• Strengthen financial reporting, FSM, CRM, and project-management capabilities before trying to scale across locations.
• Track the full inspection-to-correction funnel: inspection revenue, deficiencies, proposals, approval time, quote conversion, and completed work.
• Treat code-driven compliance and reporting as opportunities to demonstrate value to building owners and public-safety stakeholders.
• Recruit and train technicians deliberately; use technology to reduce administrative burden and improve productivity while keeping qualified technicians central to inspections.
• Explore industry-specific AI and data applications, particularly where they can improve inspection workflows or equipment design.

Presenters and sources

• Drew Slocum — host of The Fire Protection Podcast and representative of Inspect Point.
• John Mackey — guest and principal of the Mackey Group.
• Data sources discussed: Inspect Point anonymized platform data and an Inspect Point industry survey, including a survey of roughly 200 non-customer prospects and a separate customer survey.