Mountain Alarm: A Proud Family Tradition of Protecting Customers

Our company started in the early 1950s. My grandfather, Peary Barker, originally owned and operated a dairy farm called The Milky Way Farm. One day his hired hand showed up two hours late for the 4:30 a.m. shift. When Peary inquired why he was late, the hired hand replied that he had been out all night selling fire alarms. Within a few months Peary had sold all the cows and was the number one salesman at the fire alarm company. Peary soon purchased the company from the founder–he had discovered his life’s passion for life-safety technology.

In the early days we sold and installed wind-up smoke detectors. You would wind up the detector and mount it on the ceiling. If it detected smoke or heat it would ring a bell until it had completely unwound.

Fast forward nearly 70 years and three generations and you will discover that Peary’s passion for life safety has been passed down. Today, we have over 130 technicians who are highly specialized, trained, and certified to install and service life-safety systems. We install and maintain the best life-safety products on the market, including smoke detection, heat detection, carbon monoxide detection, methane detection, flood detection, freeze detection, and many other highly specialized systems monitoring all kinds of environmental conditions from automated manufacturing to medical products that have to maintain a certain temperature.

Our products are much more advanced, accurate, and integrated with other systems than they were in the 1950s but we still have the same goal in mind–protecting property and saving lives. The notification devices have also improved significantly from a wind-up bell to systems that now trigger horns and speaker strobes throughout a building on battery backup for an extended period of time.

We are committed to being the best life-safety company in all the markets we serve. Our business started in life safety and it continues to be the largest part of our business today.

As a reminder, commercial fire alarm systems should be thoroughly inspected annually by a trained technician. Residential systems should be placed on test monthly and tested by the owner. If you think your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors are older than 10 years, it is recommended they be replaced. It is worth the peace of mind you will have knowing you are protecting what matters most.

By Eric Garner, CEO & President