Fire and water: catching the two big property perils early
Most property losses are not instant events; they are small events that were allowed to grow. The cameras already in a building can now spot smoke and water in the first minutes, when the damage is still small.
The scale of the two perils
Fire and escape of water dominate commercial property claims, and the official numbers are stark:
What the totals hide is how these losses grow. A fire that is caught while it is a wisp of smoke from a cabinet is an incident report; twenty minutes later it can be a building. A leak found in the first hour is a mop and a plumber; found on Monday morning, it is stock, equipment, flooring and weeks of business interruption. Severity is a function of time, and time is exactly what detection buys.
How camera-based detection works
AI video analytics connects to the cameras a building already has and watches the live feed continuously for the visual signatures of both perils:
- Fire and smoke: visible smoke and flame, recognised at the source, often before smoke reaches a ceiling-mounted detector, and effective in the open, high-ceiling and outdoor spaces where conventional detection is hardest to engineer.
- Escape of water: standing water, pooling and active leaks, anywhere a camera can see, from plant rooms to warehouse aisles to the space under racking.
- The adjacent risks: blocked fire exits and hot works, the conditions that turn a small event into a large one.
When something is recognised, the alert goes to the people on site immediately, with the camera and zone identified. Detection is tuned per site and the models are continuously fine-tuned, so alerts stay relevant. It complements, never replaces, conventional alarms and suppression; the point is the early visual signal and the coverage of spaces conventional detection struggles with. The deployment detail (edge or cloud, per site) is on Platform.
The insurance logic
Insurers already fund exactly this pattern where the maths works. Insurer leak-sensor programmes in home insurance report around 39% fewer water-damage claims, with one major insurer giving the device free to every buildings customer because prevention costs less than claims. Camera-based detection extends the same logic to commercial buildings, across fire as well as water, using infrastructure the building already owns. Software starts from £15 per camera per month, with exact pricing confirmed against the final requirements; for most sites that is a fraction of a single serious claim, which is the whole commercial case, set out with an interactive calculator here.
Where to start
- Businesses: see the full range of what the cameras can watch for, and ask your broker whether monitored prevention is available on your cover.
- Brokers and insurers: the insurer view covers how fire and water detection fit into a commercial product, and a 30 minute demo shows the detections live.
Common questions
Does camera-based fire detection replace smoke alarms and sprinklers?
No. It complements them. Conventional detection and suppression remain the regulatory baseline; camera-based detection adds an early visual signal, often before smoke reaches a ceiling detector, and covers open or high-ceiling spaces where conventional detection is hardest.
How does commercial water leak detection work with cameras?
The software watches for the visible signs: standing water, pooling, active leaks and water where it should not be, across any area a camera covers. It alerts the site immediately, so a burst pipe on a Friday night is dealt with that night, not discovered on Monday.
Why do escape of water claims matter so much to insurers?
Escape of water is one of the most common and costly commercial property claims; the ABI reports UK insurers pay out £1.8m every day on it. Severity is driven by duration, which is exactly what early detection cuts.