Oak Ridge Chamber names Life Safety Inspections small business of month

 

Submitted

Life Safety Inspections is the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce’s Small Business of the Month for October 2021. The award is sponsored by Enrichment Federal Credit Union.

Ask owner Chip Dooley what led him to start LSI and he’ll tell you it came to him in a dream. 13 years ago, he found himself unhappy in his job – he had even gone so far as to write a letter of resignation, but just wasn’t quite ready to submit it. He tucked it away under his desk calendar and went home. That night, he dreamed about fire extinguishers and exit signs. He began researching fire extinguisher companies in the area and could only find six. After working on a business plan, he decided the market could handle another one.

According to Chip, “The hardest thing was to bring it to my wife and say, ‘Hey! I’m quitting my job, and we’re gonna be broke.’ She didn’t bat an eye. She said, ‘That’s fine’ and I was just amazed. She’s been my champion and cheerleader ever since.”

Chip points out the company’s motto is “Saving lives one extinguisher at a time.”

“I tell everyone that I’d rather have you be safe and go home to your family. There are people who love you – people who want you to come home. And that’s kind of what I think the dream that I had 13 years ago was leading us to. Make sure that people are safe and can go home.”

LSI donates chemical to local fire stations for them to use in chimney bombs, which help extinguish chimney fires, the press release said. Chip’s involvement in the community has included service on the board of the Anderson County Office on Aging as well as Habitat for Humanity. He is also an ambassador for the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce.

LSI sells and services fire suppression systems for restaurants, paint booths, server rooms, and commercial vehicles. The company also provides and maintains automated external defibrillators. The company is the only one in East Tennessee to provide vehicle suppression systems for on-road and off-road vehicles found in the mass transit, mining, waste management, and forestry industries, the press release said. It is one of the very few to have both an Amsel and an Amerax fire extinguisher distributorship. The company serves more 5,000 companies in East Tennessee from the Tri-cities to the Cumberland Plateau, including the first 100 customers who started out with them 13 years ago.

Life Safety Inspections is located at 313 Oak Ridge Turnpike, Suite 107 A.

To nominate a business like Life Safety Inspections for the award, visit Small Business of the Month under the Members tab on the Chamber’s website at www.oakridgechamber.org. Businesses that are eligible have 50 or fewer employees, are a current member of the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce in good standing, and show active involvement in the community and/or the Chamber.

This press release was submitted by Kathy Gillenwaters of the Oak Ridge Chamber of Commerce.

More information will be added as it becomes available.

Most news stories on Oak Ridge Today are free, brought to you by Oak Ridge Today with help from our advertisers, contributors, and subscribers. This is a free story. Thank you to our advertisers, contributors, and subscribers. You can see what we cover here.

---

Do you appreciate this story or our work in general? If so, please consider a monthly subscription to Oak Ridge Today. See our Subscribe page here. Thank you for reading Oak Ridge Today!

Alternatively, you can donate to support our work here. Thank you for your support!

Copyright 2021 Oak Ridge Today. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.