Ci Global is redefining electrical fire prevention through intelligent monitoring that identifies developing faults before ignition, helping buildings become safer.
Ci Global is tackling fire safety’s electrical blind spot with intelligent systems that detect risk long before ignition.
Beyond the blind spot
Electrical faults are a leading cause of building fires worldwide, yet electrical systems remain largely invisible between inspections. Standards, checks and protective devices support fire safety today, but they cannot show how a system is behaving in real time. That is the gap Ci Global was built to close.
Founded by Anthony D. Parfitt, whose earlier career delivered Home Office-approved safety and surveillance systems for UK Government, Network Rail and police forces, Ci Global was shaped by the Grenfell Tower tragedy in 2017. It exposed, in Parfitt’s words, “a fundamental gap: most fire safety systems still only act once a fire has already started.” His answer was to look at where most electrical fires begin – not in the walls, but in the everyday sockets, plugs and connection points where faulty goods, loose connections and overloaded circuits silently build heat long before ignition.
Detecting danger before ignition
Ci Safe, the company’s flagship system, is built around patented Ci ThermalVision™ technology, which detects overheating, arcing and developing faults long before a fire can start, cutting power instantly at source.
More than a smart socket
Sockets are only the entry point: Ci Safe is a full building-safety ecosystem spanning hardware, edge intelligence, cloud AI and command-and-control tools, extending to gas and water leak prevention, mould-risk detection and, through Ci SafeLink, integration with existing BMS, fire panels, sprinklers and HVAC systems without ripping out what is already installed.
From plant rooms to first response
For critical infrastructure, Ci DirectView applies the same sensing technology as a standalone monitoring unit for plant rooms, substations, EV charging and data centres, while Ci Inside lets manufacturers embed ThermalVision directly into appliances tackling faulty white goods, which account for over half of domestic appliance fires. On the response side, Ci SafeMap, Ci Drone and radar-based human detection give first responders live 3D building visibility and can locate occupants even in zero-visibility smoke conditions.
Award-winning prevention
The approach has earned recognition well beyond the fire sector: the Safety Innovation Award (2022), an IoT Global Award (2023), a Security & Fire Excellence Award (2025) and an Intersec Award (2026), alongside 71 patent cases granted to date across the UK, US, EU, Gulf and Asia-Pacific markets. Judges at Electrical Safety First called the technology “a significant safety protection measure” for tower blocks. This publication has previously described Ci’s sockets as “the most advanced safety smart sockets of their kind.”
Where regulation is heading
Regulators are moving the same way. Recent legislation in Dubai has placed prevention and continuous monitoring at the centre of building safety standards, reducing incident risk, improving preparedness and giving earlier insight into hazards before emergency response is required.
The next fire safety standard
Ci Global is clear that continuous supervision does not replace established fire engineering; compliance, inspection and detection remain fundamental. The opportunity, as the company sees it, is to add a layer of intelligence to a part of the building that has always stayed out of view, turning electrical behaviour from a blind spot into actionable insight, and prevention into the next standard for fire safety.
