Fire prevention
specialists.
Durham Region.
Since 1983.
Inspection, testing and certification of fire alarms, extinguishers, emergency lighting and sprinklers in industrial and commercial buildings, with the reports insurers and the fire department accept.
WORK IN PAIRS
WITH THE AHJ
Service lines
What happens between the failed inspection and the closed file
Send the list
A photo of the order or the inspector's report is enough to start.
Read it against the code
What is genuinely required, what is arguable, what the deadline really is.
Corrected in-house
Our own technicians repair, replace, test and certify. Fixed price per item.
Filed, and closed
You get the report that proves compliance. The fire department gets its copy.
Retention is not a problem we have
We dispute unreasonable retrofit orders
A twenty-five-year-old system hit with a six-figure demand deserves the question: what was wrong with it for twenty-five years? We put that to the fire department, with your inspection history attached, and often win.
We answer, and we show up
Needs get amended immediately rather than ignored. Unglamorous, and it is the whole reason clients stay.
Filed with the fire department
The AHJ knows your building is maintained, so a lapse gets noticed early rather than at an inspection.
Who we work with
What clients say
Harex Inc., Oshawa · averaged across every platform
“Harex has looked after our alarm and extinguishers for years. They come when they say they will, and the report is in our hands before the insurer asks for it.”
“We had thirty days and a list we did not understand. They went through it item by item, told us what was actually required, and we passed the re-inspection.”
“Panel went into trouble on a Saturday night. Somebody answered, walked our supervisor through it on the phone, and had a technician there before the shift started.”
How Harex works
- Second generation, family-owned
- Alex Harris runs administration; his father co-oversees the business and the technical side. Harex has been owned by the same family since 1983.
- Technicians work in pairs
- Every Harex crew is two technicians. That is not a preference: a single technician is not legally permitted to test a fire alarm system, and the work does not physically function alone.
- Signed off by the technician who did it
- A CAN/ULC-S536 inspection is signed by the technician who performed it, which is why an inspection cannot be filed without being done.
- Quoted per building, before the work
- Harex quotes each building after looking at the system, and the quote is approved before anything is scheduled. Requests get a reply within one business day.
- Three-year contracts lock the rate
- Most inspection work sits under a three-year agreement: the same technician returns to a building he knows, the rate is fixed for the term, and nothing lapses between visits.
- Reports are forwarded to the fire department
- Harex files completed inspections with the local fire department, so the building is on record as maintained and a lapse is noticed early rather than at an inspection.
- Harex argues the order when it does not stand up
- Where a retrofit order on an older system does not hold up, Harex puts the question to the fire department in writing on the building owner's behalf rather than passing on the invoice.
- One number, 24 hours
- 905-242-2335 reaches the Harex office Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and reaches a technician at any other hour. There is no separate emergency line to look up.
- Nights, weekends and holidays
- Fire system faults disproportionately happen outside business hours, so Harex answers outside them. A panel in trouble on a Saturday night is a normal call, not an exception.
- Thirty-day orders are worked to the date
- An order to comply from an Ontario fire department typically carries about 30 days. Harex schedules against that deadline, not against its own queue.
Coverage, hours and what we do not take on
- Durham Region and the east GTA
- Harex covers Oshawa, Whitby, Ajax, Pickering, Courtice, Bowmanville and Clarington for all services. Port Perry and north Durham are scheduled work with emergency coverage by arrangement. The east GTA and Scarborough are scheduled work for contract clients.
- Not downtown Toronto
- Travel is billed, so a contractor local to a downtown Toronto building will beat Harex on price there. Harex does not chase that work and says so rather than quoting it high.
- Industrial first, residential never refused
- About 70 per cent of Harex's work is industrial. Residential is taken on: it means coordinating tenant access, which stretches a two-week job toward a month, and it is never off the table.
- Hours
- The Harex office in Oshawa is open Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, and closed Saturday and Sunday. The emergency line is answered 24 hours a day, every day of the year, on the same number.
- Address
- Harex Inc. is at 1374 Baynes Ave, Oshawa, ON L1K 0C5, in Durham Region east of Toronto. Work is performed on site at the building; the office is not a walk-in counter.
- Municipalities served
- Oshawa (home base · all services), Whitby (all services), Ajax (all services), Pickering (all services), Courtice (all services), Bowmanville (all services), Clarington (all services), Port Perry & north Durham (scheduled work · emergency by arrangement), East GTA & Scarborough (scheduled work · contract clients).
- Standards Harex works to
- CAN/ULC-S536 for fire alarm inspection and testing, CAN/ULC-S524 for installation, CAN/ULC-S537 for verification, and the Ontario Fire Code as enforced by the local fire department, which is the authority having jurisdiction.
Facts reviewed September 2026 · call 905-242-2335 to confirm anything before you rely on it