Residential Fire Sprinklers .com

Protecting Your Home & Family

BY DAVE GATHMAN – The Courier News

HAMPSHIRE — As about 20 business people looked on, a man with a lighter set fire to two living rooms.

It was a demonstration of what a difference home sprinkling systems can make, and members of the Hampshire Area Chamber of Commerce were watching Wednesday as the fires started burning in two little simulated living rooms behind the village’s fire station.

Each “living room” occupied a wooden hut measuring 10 square feet. Each was lined with drywall and contained a well-weathered couch plus a used TV set. They even had cheap paintings on the walls.

There was one major difference, though. Room No. 1 had no sprinkler system. As a small fire began flickering on the surface of its couch — the kind of fire that might have been started by a dropped cigarette, Fire Capt. Trevor Herrmann noted — thin, wispy gray smoke floated up the wall and collected near the ceiling.

The fire spread along the couch with what seemed like a slow pace. But only about three minutes into the demonstration, it burned through the couch’s fabric covering and began attacking the foam cushion inside. Within seconds the thin, gray smoke turned into thick, suffocating, pitch-black clouds that filled the room and blocked all sight.

Another 90 seconds — exactly 4 minutes and 35 seconds after the fire began, or about how long it likely would take the first firetrucks to arrive, Herrmann noted — Room No. 1 reached a magic temperature point where all that smoke and hot gas suddenly became combustible themselves. With an almost explosion-like poof, the room’s whole atmosphere turned instantly from a black cloud to a sheet of yellow flame.

“That’s the flashover,” Herrmann explained. But anyone on that couch would have been dead by now anyway.

Then the same process began in Room No. 2. Its couch fire began the same way, with flickering flames and wispy gray smoke. But 1 minute and 35 seconds into the experiment, a sprinkler head on that room’s ceiling started spraying water onto the fire. The blaze was totally extinguished before another half minute had passed.

Few residences have sprinklers, Herrmann and Fire Chief Curt Kramer noted. Herrmann said sprinklers in a new house or apartment building cost about $9,000 for a 3,000-square-foot structure. Trying to retrofit sprinklers into an existing home is even more expensive.

But knowing what he does about house fires, “My next home will definitely have sprinklers,” Herrmann said.

Short of installing sprinklers, Herrmann said the most important steps anyone can take to prevent fire deaths are to have smoke detectors and change their batteries twice annually, and to have an escape plan and practice it with the whole family. “I keep an escape ladder under my bed, and every once in awhile I’ll set off the smoke detector at 2:30 a.m. so we can practice getting out,” Herrmann said.

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By KEITH WHITNEY – WXIA11

A tragic landmark in downtown Atlanta has been brought back to life with stunning success. The old Winecoff Hotel, site of the nation’s deadliest hotel fire, 61 years ago, has been reborn as the Ellis Hotel on Peachtree.

The Winecoff was an abandoned blight for decades, but now, it takes its place once again on the top tier of downtown hotels.

Atlanta’s newest hotel is actually one of the oldest — and while the Ellis on Peachtree comes with a tragic past, it also promises a bright future.

“We were very, very successful our first week,” said general manager Tom O’Leary. “We have a lot of people coming in looking at the property, very excited about the new hotel.”

Wednesday night, local dignitaries took a guided tour of the posh boutique hotel.

“As we walked through, I noticed that it’s completely fire sprinkler protected,” said Fulton County Fire Chief Larry Few. “And in the fire business, we know that 95 percent of the time that fire sprinklers are installed in residential occupancies like this, they work and they save lives.”

But 61 years ago, there were no sprinklers when a suspicious fire broke out, killing 119 people — many of them high school kids on a trip to Atlanta.

“Forty of them stayed here, 30 of them perished,” said filmmaker Dawn Fields. “Five of them were all classmates from Rome, Ga., so it really hit that small town hard because it was a great loss of life for such a small town.”

“This building transformed the way we fight fires not only in the city of Atlanta, but also across the country,” said Atlanta City Council President Lisa Borders.

But the most remarkable transformation is to the hotel itself.

“Many of us have ridden by this block for 30 years, waiting for you to come,” said Mayor Shirley Franklin. “And it proves if you wait long enough, great things happen. Congratulations and wow!”

Despite the fact that the hotel wasn’t even officially open, the Ellis has been packed with guests.

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COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) – One man involved in last night’s fire at Three Rivers Apartments was just about to move out.

William Orris and his wife were in the process of moving out when the fire began. According to Orris, the couple had 95% of their belongings somewhere else.

Orris says he is the most fortunate of the people who’s apartments were destroyed in the blaze.

“I can’t believe it. One minute apartments are here, the next, you know. Things just happen. In a split second you don’t know what going to happen,” Orris said.

Orris said he was glad no one got hurt, but expressed his apologies to those who lost their belongings.

The people in the other ten apartments affected by the fire have lost nearly everything. Despite the extensive fire and water damage, Orris said, that is the least of their worries; they must find a new place to live.

“If you need anything, just let me know. We could run and bus them some clothes. Things they need to help themselves,” Orris said.

The Red Cross placed five of the people in those apartments in temporary housing. The Fire Department said sprinklers could have slowed down the flames.

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By JOAN WHITELY – Las Vegas Review-Journal

The Meridian Luxury Suites bills itself as a “refined getaway in the heart of the bustling Las Vegas Strip.”

But for all the luxury, one of the Meridian’s five-story buildings has gone without reliable fire protection for about eight months.

And yet early this year, both the Clark County Fire Department and Nevada State Contractors Board discarded, after only casual investigation, formal complaints alleging that a plumber without proper licensing did a “Mickey Mouse” job on a line that supplies water to room sprinklers and fire-hose hookups throughout a 136-suite building at the Meridian.

In each case, the public agency contacted only the plumbing contractor and Meridian management to explore the complaint. Neither contacted the men who filed the complaints, who had saved a cell-phone photo showing the questionable plumbing before it was buried under about a foot of earth.

Near the Strip, the Meridian is a gated, lushly landscaped condominium project that is converting to hotel use. It consists of five residential buildings plus clubhouse, swimming pools and tennis courts at 250 E. Flamingo Road.

The term “Mickey Mouse job” comes from Eric Edwards, one of two men who filed complaints with the agencies in November regarding what they say is a dangerously deficient plumbing job at the Meridian, performed by HK Plumbing. The plumbing company had fired both men in October, after they expressed dissatisfaction with the work, which was done in late September.

Edwards and Mario Salinas, the other former HK employee, claim both enforcement agencies took at face value a misleading story from Harry Sullard, the HK Plumbing owner, that his company had worked only on a landscaping water line or domestic water line. The two ex-employees said they feared the present fire line will fail in an emergency, which could strand occupants or firefighters inside the building during a fire.

An answering service for HK Plumbing said several times this week that the business was closed until Monday, but logged several requests from the Review-Journal to speak with Sullard.

The two men say neither agency gave them the time of day — until recently, after they brought their dilemma to the newspaper, which then contacted the fire department to learn how it handled the complaint. The men also sent certified letters in late April, restating their worries, to officials they had not contacted earlier, including the state fire marshal, the Clark County manager and the Reno-based chair of the contractors board.

After the letters went out, the two say they received calls from both the contractors board and the county fire department, and have met in person with investigators from each agency.

“He was as red as a bandanna,” is how Edwards described the demeanor of Gordon LaPointe of the contractors board, after Edwards earlier this week gave him details that counter the version of events LaPointe obtained when he talked to HK Plumbing and Meridian staff about the complaint, which the board closed in January.

The county fire department has reopened its complaint as well, county spokeswoman Stacey Welling said Thursday.

County records show that HK pulled a permit for work at the Meridian on Dec. 26, 2007, but the permit does not describe a fire line job.

HK Plumbing lacks the specialized license, issued by the state fire marshal, that’s required to work on fire systems, according to Jim Wright, Nevada’s fire marshal. He said his office sent HK Plumbing a letter on Monday telling it to “cease and desist” work outside the scope of its licenses, and requesting a conference. HK does hold a state contractor’s license and a county business license, which allow it to work on water lines that are not part of a fire system. A nonspecialized plumber is also allowed to do a temporary, emergency repair to a fire line.

Edwards, HK’s former controller, and Salinas, a journeyman plumber, allege HK Plumbing — against Salinas’ advice — repaired a leaking fire line at the Meridian using inferior materials and skipping steps that would keep a high-pressure fire line from coming apart at vulnerable joints.

If the repair failed, ceiling sprinklers would not work and firefighters would have to hook in hoses farther away.

“We’d never done anything like this” job, said Salinas, who worked for HK for nine years. “I felt this was more than what we can handle.”

Salinas said he snuck a picture of the job because he knew HK was skipping permits and inspections.

The two workers say HK’s original assignment at the Meridian last fall was to investigate the source of water pooling outside the building.

“The Meridian Homeowners Association has no knowledge of code violations related to any work completed by a licensed contractor,” Michael Mackenzie, president of the association, said Thursday in a prepared statement. “The safety of our owners and guests is of the utmost importance, and we always welcome the Clark County Fire Department” and other agencies on the property to enforce safety.

After HK dug to expose the leak’s source, it determined the building’s “riser” had a hole, according to Edwards and Salinas. A riser is an expensive right-angled pipe of thick steel that accepts firefighting water from an outdoor line and then routes it into various fire systems, such as sprinklers and pipes with hookups for hoses.

According to the two former workers, HK decided to bypass the costly riser, which violates safety codes. It also created two new 90-degree joints in the outdoor piping, but didn’t encase the joints in concrete as required.

Such a concrete form is called a “thrust block.” It is designed to stabilize a fire line’s joint, so it won’t burst apart under high pressure, according to Terry Taylor, an independent fire consultant from northern Nevada.

When a fire engine is pushing water into a riser, Taylor explained, the pressure is more than double that in a domestic water line.

Edwards and Salinas also allege that HK installed an illegal manual valve on the outdoor line leading to the riser, so that water wouldn’t flood the repair site.

However, after the job was done, HK didn’t remove the valve, which is against code. That means a gardener could one day turn the valve off, not knowing he was cutting off the building’s supply of water to fight fire.

If the contractors board or fire department had contacted the men last year, they say, the building’s fire safety would have been swiftly restored. Following the agencies’ belated overtures, the men directed inspectors to a locked “fire room” in the basement parking structure of the compromised Meridian building. Inside the room, they say, is clear evidence of the abandoned riser and jerry-rigged bypass.

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Jason Markusoff – Calgary Herald

EDMONTON – Some new Alberta fire-safety rules would have helped reduce the wide-scale damage of a blaze that devoured dozens of townhouse duplexes in south Edmonton last year, Edmonton Fire Chief Randy Wolsey said today.

The most talked-about change the government announced today was the requirement that fire-resistant drywall be placed under vinyl sidings on homes within 1.2 metres of a property line. But the MacEwan Green homes were spread farther apart. Wolsey, who for years has pushed for quick reforms to building codes, said other measures in Municipal Affairs Minister Ray Danyluk’s wide-ranging reforms would have made a difference in last July’s inferno.

“Could we have reduced that tragedy at MacEwan Green? The answer is absolutely we could have, with better construction-site safety,” the chief told reporters.

Fewer than one in five new homes are built close enough together to be covered by the new barrier requirements, but other reforms will have more sweeping effect – particularly, one that requires all garages to have gypsum walls and fire detectors. Residential construction sites, where many multi-home blazes like MacEwan begin, will now be overseen more closely by fire departments and city officials.

Danyluk estimated the changes might add between $5,000 and $10,000 to the cost of some new homes, although the province’s leading homebuilders’ group said it will take days or weeks to determine the price impact.

“Those cost implications are there if you weren’t planning to do it, but there are a lot of homes that are already gyp-rocking their garages,” the minister said.

The changes to fire and building codes will be in place next year, he predicted. Alberta normally follows the lead of national code updates, but those wouldn’t have been announced until 2010 and wouldn’t have taken effect until two or five years afterwards.

“We need to have confidence in the product that we’re building,” Danyluk said.

The rules stem from a report completed last fall by a fire and safety task force, ordered to look at ways of stopping high-intensity residential fires that have become more common in the age of cheaper building materials and more densely packed subdivisions.

The Stelmach government adopted 18 of the group’s 22 recommendations, rejecting one that would give fire officials more oversight of plans for subdivisions and major developments. It also pledged to study further a call for tighter rules on homes spread farther apart than 1.2 metres. Wolsey admitted that was a change he wanted, but said he understands that scientific research doesn’t currently back his opinions.

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BY KURT MOORE – The Marion Star

MARION – The Marion (Homeless) Shelter Program continues to seek donations as it works toward complying with a state order to install a fire sprinkler system.

The Ohio Board of Building Appeals ruled on April 21 that the program, which built a family homeless shelter at 326 W. Fairground St. in 2006 and opened it in 2007, must install an automatic fire suppression system within a year of the ruling.

As program director Mark Lovett looks for was to cover the estimated $30,000 in additional costs, he says he and the shelter’s board were unaware it would need a fire suppression system until after it was built and opened.

He said he originally believed it was a residential building, not commercial, and did not fall under state guidelines. In a county without a local building code office, fire and zoning officials said it’s an example of why people need to take it upon themselves to make sure they meet all local and state requirements before they build.

The shelter, which currently houses women and families with children, was located in Marion Township when construction started but was later annexed to the city of Marion. The Marion City Fire Department inspected it after the city annexed the property and told Lovett to get sprinklers.

While Marion Township zoning inspector Charlie Fosnaugh said he agreed the building would be suitable for a residential area, he said that only has to do with zoning. He checks for such requirements as a proper distance between the building and the road and whether it falls within the guidelines of what kind of facilities can be built in the specific community, such as whether it is zoned for offices or industry. He said zoning has nothing to do with building plans and whether the state considers a building to be commercial or residential.

Fosnaugh said he tells everyone to make sure they are meeting all local and state guidelines. He includes information on the township’s Web site as to who to contact. He said his job does not cover building codes and requirements and he does not review building plans.

He referred to the Marion Shelter Program’s bid proposal that was included with its zoning application. The bid proposal prepared by project manager Brent Longstieth stated that builders are not to supersede any local and state building standards.

Marion Township Fire Chief Mike Fogle said he was originally told that the shelter was going to be a residential duplex, which he thought meant a multi-family housing unit such as a two-to-four apartment complex that would be considered residential.

What was built was a building with two wings that can hold up to 30 people including staff. Marion City Fire Chief Al Gruber said he and Mike Makowski, the fire department’s inspector, inspected the facility when it became city property and told Lovett that the shelter needs a sprinkler system.

“It was the fire department’s job to make sure it was safe,” said Gruber. “I’m hoping to help them however I can. I offered to go to any church and explain to them” that donations are needed to keep the facility and its residents safe.

“My inspector and I have to sleep too,” said Gruber, who said he was concerned because of how many people would be at the shelter and that they allow cooking by residents at the site. “I just want it safe.”

He said that the shelter never received state approval for building plans.

Lovett said he was unaware that the shelter would need a fire sprinkler system nor building plan approval until the building was built and inspected by Marion City Fire Department.

“We didn’t ignore the requirements but were not informed as much as we needed to be,” said Lovett, who said he did not contact the Ohio Board of Building Compliance because he was told that the shelter was residential and did not fall under the state.

Lovett said an architect drew up building plans after it was built because the state requested the plans. He said the building was built without an architect because he was told exact plans would not be needed if the building did not need state approval.

Lovett said they received bad advice but did not elaborate.

“We’re actually frustrated with ourselves as well,” he said. “You live and learn.”

Matt Mullins, a spokesman with the state building appeals board, said the state considers the building to be commercial. The appeals board acted on an appeal of an Ohio Bureau of Building Code Compliance ruling issued after the shelter program requested an appeal of the fire department’s decision.

The city and county currently do not have their own building code after voters in the city repealed the code and the county dropped it afterwards. Gruber said if there was a building code and a building code office he expects that office would provide such information as what is required before building.

As it exists now, he said there is no one he knows of that would have the job of making sure people have the proper building permits.

Lovett said no one, including utilities who hooked up service to the building, questioned whether or not the facility needed state approval.

“No one can give you a straight answer,” said Lovett. “That’s why we got away with building the whole thing residential.”

He said he believes it is partly because it is rare for homeless shelter programs to build their own buildings. It is more common to renovate an existing building such as the homeless shelter program’s men’s shelter located on East Fairground Street.

Local officials agreed it is a sort of gray area as to whether a new shelter would be commercial or residential. Mullins did not comment other than to say the state ruled this shelter to be commercial.

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BY EVONNE COUTROS – The Record

SADDLE RIVER — Borough officials would like to see sprinkler systems and strobe warning lights become standard features in new or renovated homes in town.

Strobe lights could provide a lifesaving warning if a fire were to break out in one of the wealthy borough’s many immense houses that have home theaters, the officials say.

“If the fire alarm does go off and a family is watching a movie, the strobe would go off,” said Richard Silvia, the fire subcode official and fire marshal.

Silvia and other officials are pushing for the strobes and sprinklers even though they are not required by construction codes.

“You can add a theater in your house and not do anything the way it is now. … We can’t supersede the state codes,” said John Scialla, the zoning officer and construction building code official for Saddle River. “You can only ask or educate people.”

Fifty percent of the new homes in town have a form of media room, Scialla and Silvia say. If a residence does not have one on the first go-round, owners generally install them eventually.

Scialla said he cannot understand why so many new homes in the borough lack sprinklers. “I think it’s the most logical way to protect your home,” he said.

“They’re aesthetically pleasing these days,” Silvia added of residential sprinkler systems. “They can be recessed into a ceiling or wall. One sprinkler head is the equivalent of having a firefighter in your home. It’s instantaneous water on a fire to keep it from spreading throughout the house.”

Borough Administrator Chuck Cuccia said an informational forum on sprinklers and strobe fire safety lighting will likely be held in coming months for residents.

“John and Rich have been working with residents on a voluntary basis. … The borough supports their proactiveness 100 percent,” said Cuccia, who is also a firefighter.

Mayor Samuel Raia said he is seriously considering a sprinkler retrofit in the home he has owned for decades.

“It’s not a significant add-on given the cost of new construction,” Raia said. “I think sprinkler systems are a real benefit to a town like ours.”

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By BRENDAN WEDLEY – Peterborough Examiner

The housing construction market is slowing along with the economy but home builders remain optimistic about the future, the president of the provincial association of home builders says.

Mark Basciano, the Ontario Home Builders Association president, was the guest speaker at the monthly dinner hosted by the Peterborough and the Kawarthas Home Builders’ Association yesterday.

“Our economy is slowing and that will of course impact what happens to our housing market,” he told about 70 people at the dinner at the Best Western Otonabee Inn.

“Things are still healthy, they’re still good, but everybody’s a little bit worried and they should be.”

Peterborough MP Dean Del Mastro, Peterborough MPP Jeff Leal and Mayor Paul Ayotte heard the message. They were at the head table along with association president Paul Dietrich and Fleming College president Tony Tilly.

Councillors Eric Martin and Patti Peeters also attended.

The housing market in Ontario has moderated the past couple of years, dropping to 68,123 housing starts last year from 73,417 in 2006, Basciano said.

The Ontario Home Builders Association forecasts about 69,000 housing construction starts this year, he said.

The Peterborough area bucked the provincial trend with 540 housing starts last year, which was up 24 per cent from starts in 2006.

“But in the first quarter of 2008 things are looking a little less buoyant and starts are down slightly compared to the same period last year,” Basciano said.

“(Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation) is predicting 465 starts for Peterborough in 2008 and a further drop to 435 starts in 2009.” Besides the economy, Basciano talked about what the association sees as the top provincial issues facing the housing industry.

Residential fire sprinklers was first on the list.

The province recently finished a 60-day consultation period for making it mandatory to install residential fire sprinklers in high-rise buildings, Basciano said.

“The province is only looking at high-rise (buildings) right now, but sprinkler supporters and fire marshals are pushing hard for every new home in Ontario to be mandated to include a sprinkler system,” he said.

“Hard-wired smoke alarms are still the best method to save lives. Sprinklers save property and may be the source of a variety of future problems due to maintenance and reliability.”

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I find it fascinating that the greatest innovation in fire protection was invented well over 100 years ago. Sure, there have been advancements over the years in fire sprinkler design and materials, but the basic technology that makes fire sprinklers so effective remains essentially the same.

We are fortunate to live in a time where fire protection systems like fire sprinklers have progressed to widespread use and acceptance. But, as is the case with many prevention efforts, it was only after too many significant losses occurred that the general public and key decision makers woke up and took action.

Below is a short video (1 min, 45 sec) that starts with the invention of the automatic sprinkler system in 1874 and then takes you on a video journey to modern day uses of fire sprinkler systems.

As you can see it took a series of devastating fires to enact the strict commercial fire sprinkler requirements that exist today. But, what about requirements for residential fire sprinkler systems?

Well, to put it simply, continued home fire loss is increasing public awareness, but the residential building codes are still lagging behind the protection now required for commercial buildings.

For a more in-depth review of home fire loss and residential fire sprinkler requirements be sure to register for our free Home Fire Protection Report. On the left side of the screen at Residential Fire Sprinklers .com just type in your first name and primary email address, then click the “Free Report!” button.

The significant losses in home fires are occurring…now it is time for the general public and key decision makers to wake up and take action.

Adam Jensen – Tahoe Daily Tribune

Douglas County commissioners last Thursday approved an ordinance requiring automatic fire-sprinkler systems in some homes within the Tahoe-Douglas Fire Protection District.

The ordinance exempts new structures less than 3,600 square feet from having to install automatic fire-sprinkler systems if the buildings meet fire-flow requirements.

The ordinance requires sprinklers in existing homes if an addition would increase the size of a home to more than 3,600 square feet.

The size requirement does not include so-called “accessory uses” such as garages, decks and covered walkways.

To read the full article click here.