Description

Often, in its relatively early stages, a fire inside a premises does not manifest to people outside the premises. So, people in the neighborhood may not be seeing the smoke, or sensing the smell, or paying attention to the distant sound of fire alarms, etc. While people inside the premises might be battling the flames (and potentially losing the fight, e.g. due to insufficient fire extinguishers, etc), other people in nearby businesses might be unaware of what's unfolding. Or, some people might be just apathetic, thinking that a fire alarm in another (nearby) building is not an immediate cause for concern because (1) the sound is not close enough, (2) someone in the vicinity may cannot pinpoint the building or floor from the sound alone, (3) people are unsure if/how they could be of any help, (4) they assume someone else is already taking care of things. Such a "bystander" mentality can prove dangerous, since fires tend to spread, and the initial location and its insurer might be on the hook for damages to surrounding businesses, too. GroupStrong (or GroupShield? This is just a temporary name). Imagine if an app, or a special alert feature in your smartphone notifications, or even your social media app, is able to send an urgent "help. fire!" notification to a bunch of phones that are part of a "group." The subscription-only group consists of landlines and mobile phones in businesses that are located near your business (i.e. a textile SME). Not all members of the group need to be Allianz customers, but some will be. When, in the case of a fire in your premises, an alert goes out to the nearby stores/businesses and their employees, they can respond quickly - e.g. run over with their fire extinguishers to back up your extinguishers, take measures against the spread of fire to adjacent locations, etc. Importantly, in the context of textile SMEs, these companies often have flammable fabrics on site, and may have installed fire protection systems for their equipment (fire blankets, fire shielded enclosures, etc and several other ideas in this contest). A GroupStrong alert allows neighbors to deploy relevant fire protection measures, and thus the "overall" damage/risk for the group is reduced. I also envision that the status of on-premises firefighting equipment can be factored into notifications that go out to the group, and potentially to the fire department ,and even to a logging system accessible to the insurer. For example, when fire extinguishers are yanked from their holders or taken off hooks, those holders or hooks can communicate the status via IoT. For instance, if I get a notification that thee is a fire in a location that's part of my group, AND I am also informed that 3 fire extinguishers at that location have been mobilized (yanked off from their hooks), I can be sure that this is no false alarm and no drill. And I get some idea of how big the scale of the fire might be. This increases the chance of me acting fast and mobilizing my co-workers, even if my location is a few buildings away from the fire location I'm being notified about. With GroupStrong, nearby businesses look out for each other, and can come to each other's help quickly in the case of a fire or local hazard. To further encourage such a group, Allianz can offer special policies that cover people in the group if they get injured while helping another member of the group. When such groups are formed, and one-for-all, all-for-one pledges made to help each other, Allianz may offer insurance policy discounts to the group,. The group can also be leveraged to get discounts on fire protection equipment, on monitoring services, fire preparedness monitoring, etc. The group also makes "self-policing" likely, so that members adhere to fire safety.