After seven years in the structural steel industry (1972 to 1979) I came to realize the structural steel industry was not where I wanted the rest of my life spent, To make a long story short, I called Mel Ready a Fire Protection Engineer, set up an interview, and started my career in fire protection in 1979. Wow! What a neat industry to be in. Saving lives and property. Kind of like fire fighting or being a fireman, but I didn't have to risk my life to do it. This was great!!!!

My brother and sister-n-law, Mick and Charlene Turner of Parker, South Dakota had enough faith in me and made a small loan ... thus the beginning of Urban Fire Protection (UFP) on the 8th of March, 1993. The need for a Fire Alarm Company which could work in concert with UFP soon became apparent and Urban Fire Alarm (UFA) was born in May of 1998.

My original purpose of UFP was to educate people about residential fire sprinklers and the devastating effects of fire. That was March of 1993, to this day and forever the purpose of the Urban Companies still remains the same, do everything we possibly can, to educate as many people as we possibly can, and save as many lives and reduce the property loss attributed to fire. Urbans' Mission Statement is this:

Property safety is secondary only to LIFE SAFETY.

Urban Fire Protection and Urban Fire Alarm shall always maintain the utmost and highest respect for God, family, life, and education. The Urban Companies support automatic fire sprinkler and fire alarm technology to the end that fire sprinklers and fire alarms can, will, and do save lives and property.

As Urban employees we promise to:

Not sell or represent our products or services by means of scare or fear tactics;

Educate as many persons as we are able, with true, reliable, factual information;

Represent our industry with the highest quality in standards, products, installation, and service;

Represent the building industry as we would represent ourselves;

Provide the least expensive systems and service possible, without sacrificing our standards;

Provide the Opportunity for all citizens to install an automatic fire sprinkler and fire alarm system; and;

Stand proud that we live in a country as great and technologically advanced as the United States of America.

I extend a special thanks to the following:

To my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who has given me the strength and willpower to face the seemingly unbeatable odds.

To my loving wife and daughters which have endured numerous hardships and have been supportive yet patient in my absence of family life while achieving my dreams and goals;

To the employees of UFP and UFA who have assisted me and willfully taken on additional job duties enabling me to concentrate my efforts on this dream;

To all our customers, especially the ones who have voluntarily installed automatic fire sprinkler and fire alarm systems in their homes.