It seems the vast majority of intrusion and fire alarm panels I see wired have absolutely no external surge protection. The often get power directly from the breaker panel, or it's spliced from another circuit (especially in light commercial/residential systems).
I could be wrong here, but it seems everytime a panel gets smoked and replaced (which is fairly common), it should be accompanied by a new surge protector. Is there something I fundamentally misunderstand here? Do you install alarm systems with surge protection?