Who is buying fire and life safety businesses? The public companies and PE platforms, with sources

Part of the Fire & life safety guide: buying, selling, valuation and who is buying.

Fire and life safety businesses are being bought by two groups: public companies and private-equity-backed platforms. The largest platform, Pye-Barker, bought 57 companies in 2025 alone. This article is for an owner who wants to know who might call, and for a buyer who wants to know who they are up against. Every buyer below has a public source, and where we could not confirm an owner, we say so. This is an explainer, not advice on any company or fund.

Who are the biggest buyers of fire and life safety businesses?

The biggest buyers are APi Group, Johnson Controls and a group of private-equity platforms that each own dozens of local fire companies. Here is the list, with the owner and what each one buys.

Our hub on buying or selling a fire and life safety business covers the sector as a whole.

Which public companies buy fire protection businesses?

Two public companies matter most, and they behave differently.

APi Group is the clearest example of a public buyer in this sector. On 3 January 2022 it completed the purchase of the Chubb fire and security business from Carrier for an enterprise value of $3.1 billion, paying $2.9 billion in cash, according to its announcement filed with the SEC. Chubb had about 13,000 employees in 17 countries.

In June 2024 APi bought Elevated Facility Services Group, an elevator and escalator service company, for about $570 million. APi's release on Nasdaq said the deal added a "statutorily mandated service platform" and moved its mix "towards 60% of revenues from inspection, service, and monitoring". That one line explains the whole sector: buyers want work the law requires every year.

APi also owns long-held regional fire companies. Davis-Ulmer, a sprinkler, suppression and alarm contractor in the Northeast, was bought by APi Group in 2005, according to a National Fire Sprinkler Association member profile.

Johnson Controls is a manufacturer first. Its fiscal 2025 10-K describes "fire-detection systems and fire-suppression solutions" under brands including Simplex, Ansul and Grinnell, sold through its own branches and through distributors. Services were 32% of sales. The filing describes a divestiture in 2025 (its residential HVAC business, to Bosch) and no fire acquisitions. So Johnson Controls competes with local fire companies for service work, but it is not an active buyer of them today.

Which private equity platforms are buying?

Seven PE-backed platforms are buying local fire companies, and most of them have been sold from one fund to another in the last few years. Each sale usually restarts the buying.

Pye-Barker Fire & Safety is the largest. In its year-end release, the company said it "acquired 57 fire alarm, fire sprinkler, suppression and security companies in 2025" and had "grown to 9,000 team members across 47 states". Its owners are Altas Partners and Leonard Green & Partners; in January 2025, GIC and a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority bought minority stakes, per the law firm Kirkland & Ellis, which advised on the deal.

Marmic Fire & Safety, based in Joplin, Missouri, was bought by KKR from HGGC in July 2024. KKR's counsel Latham & Watkins described Marmic as a provider of "regulation-mandated fire equipment inspection, testing, and maintenance services" in its deal announcement. When HGGC bought it in 2021, Marmic had done 18 add-ons since 2012, per the release carried by SecurityInfoWatch.

Summit Companies, of Mendota Heights, Minnesota, has "locations across 37 states". In August 2025 it announced that BDT & MSD Partners had agreed to buy a majority stake from BlackRock Long Term Private Capital, with closing expected in the fourth quarter of 2025. We did not find a public completion notice, so treat the new ownership as pending until you see one.

Sciens Building Solutions, of San Francisco, took a majority investment from funds managed by Carlyle in November 2021, with Huron Capital and management keeping minority stakes, per Huron's release. Its focus is fire detection and clean-agent suppression.

Encore Fire Protection, of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, was sold by Levine Leichtman Capital Partners to funds advised by Permira on 13 March 2025. LLCP's release says it ran "a highly successful acquisition strategy to drive geographic expansion and enhance market density" across the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic.

Performance Systems Integration (PSI), of Portland, Oregon, has been owned by The Riverside Company since 2019. Riverside's February 2024 release on the Fire Safety Pros deal called it PSI's "eleventh add-on", covering the Pacific Northwest, Mountain West and Northern California.

AI Fire and Impact Fire. Impact Fire, of Round Rock, Texas, names AI Fire as "our parent company" on its own site. TruArc Partners said in February 2025 that it had sold AI Fire after 20 add-on acquisitions and would keep a stake. The buyer was not named in the release we found, so the current majority owner is not confirmed from public sources.

What do PE platforms look for in a fire protection company?

They look for recurring, code-required service revenue, good technicians, and a territory that fills a gap on their map. The buyers say this in their own words.

• Mandated work. Latham's Marmic announcement leads with "regulation-mandated" inspection and testing. APi's Elevated release leads with "statutorily mandated". Annual inspections do not depend on the economy.
• Technicians. Riverside said it would "continue to pursue similar customer-focused fire protection companies with strong technicians" in inspection, repair, maintenance and monitoring. Licensed people are the scarce asset.
• Density. LLCP's phrase for Encore was "geographic expansion and enhance market density". A platform wants routes that are close together, so one truck can do more inspections a day.
• Culture and reputation. Pye-Barker said it "deliberately acquired companies that align with our values and company culture". Impact Fire says it buys for "your team and your reputation in the communities you serve".
• Several trades under one roof. Pye-Barker lists alarm, sprinkler, suppression and security. A company that already does two or three of these is easier to fold in.

If you are new to the model, read what a platform acquisition is.

What size add-ons do these platforms buy?

Most add-ons are small local companies, and the pace tells you so. Pye-Barker bought 57 companies in one year. Marmic had done 18 add-ons by 2021, AI Fire 20 by 2025, PSI 11 by early 2024. Nobody buys that many large companies. These are, for the most part, owner-run firms with one or a few branches.

Prices for single deals are almost never disclosed.

We do not have a fire-safety cell in our own asking-multiples data yet, so we will not give a sector multiple here. What we can cite is the IBBA and M&A Source Market Pulse report for Q4 2025, which covers all industries by deal size. In Q4 2025, deals of $2 million to $5 million averaged 4.1 times EBITDA and deals of $5 million to $50 million averaged 5.5 times. Deals under $2 million were priced on SDE, at about 3 times. A platform may pay more or less than that average for a strong inspection book.

What does this mean for an owner thinking of selling?

There are many buyers for a fire company with recurring inspection revenue, and they buy fast. Three points follow.

First, you will probably be approached. An unsolicited offer is a starting point, not a valuation. The buyer knows the sector's numbers; you may not.

Second, the things buyers quoted above are the things that move your price: the share of revenue from inspections and monitoring contracts, the number of licensed technicians who will stay, and clean books that separate owner perks from business costs. Our guide on how to sell a fire and life safety business walks through each.

Third, structure matters as much as the headline. Platform deals often include rollover equity, an earn-out, or a period where you stay on. Each has tax and legal consequences, so talk to a lawyer and a CPA before you sign a letter of intent. If you want a second opinion on an offer, or want several buyers rather than one, book a free call with an advisor.

What does this mean for a first-time buyer competing with them?

You will not beat a platform on price for the companies it wants, so look where it is not:

• Smaller than their floor. A company with two or three technicians and a few hundred inspection accounts is often too small for a platform to bother with, and a good size for an SBA-financed buyer.
• Outside their map. The platforms above name their regions. A county that no platform serves yet is less contested.
• Owner stays, platform does not fit. Some owners do not want to join a 9,000-person company. A buyer who will keep the name and the crew has an edge with them.
• Buy, then sell to a platform later. Many first-time buyers build a company to the size a platform wants, then sell to one. The buyers above are, in effect, the exit market.

Financing is the usual route: an SBA 7(a) loan, a seller note and some of your own cash. If you want deal flow screened against your buy box, see how we help buyers.