Residential Fire Sprinklers .com

Protecting Your Home & Family

By STEPHEN HUBA – Independent

MASSILLON, OH — A potential revolution in home fire suppression got its Stark County debut Wednesday in Massillon before an audience of area firefighters, building officials and contractors.

Live demonstrations of the “looped” residential fire sprinkler system were held at a new home being built in the Centennial Village allotment at 1263 Patriot Place S.W.

Although similar systems have been used in larger home construction, the looped system is more affordable because it is connected to a home’s potable cold-water plumbing.

“Lives can be saved dramatically by this type of system,” said Luke Grabill, president of Grabill Plumbing & Heating, which recently installed the system. “We think it’s a really good thing.”

Massillon fire prevention officer Capt. Jim Thieret, who attended the demonstration with other fire officials, cited statistics suggesting that such systems can improve survival rates by 97 percent. By comparison, a smoke detector improves survival by 50 percent, he said.

Thieret said such a system can be critical in the first few minutes of a house fire. “Within five to six minutes, fire can get out of one compartment, and you can lose the whole home,” he said. “If it gets out of that compartment and into the walls, the odds of saving the structure go down significantly.”

The looped system works by drawing on the home’s domestic water supply, eliminating the problem of stagnant water, Grabill said. It also does not require the installation of check valves or backflow preventers.

Because the system can be installed by a plumber, it is more affordable than a system that requires a dedicated line and a licensed installer, Grabill said.

Cost is determined by how many sprinkler heads constitute the system. In the Massillon demonstration home, the cost for labor and materials for a 30-head system came to $8,000, Grabill said.

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ORLAND PARK, Ill., Aug. 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Effective immediately, fire protection districts in the state may now offer financial incentive to encourage and reward homeowners who install automatic fire sprinkler systems to protect their homes.

On August 12, 2008, Governor Rod Blagojevich signed HB4687, a bill that establishes the right for fire protection district trustees to award monetary grants to the owners of single-family homes when they install a qualifying fire sprinkler system (installed and maintained in accordance with national standards and certified locally).

The bill was introduced in January 2008 by Rep. Donald L. Moffitt (R-74th). Representatives Mike Boland (D-71st) and Michael K. Smith (D-91st) sponsored it in the House, and Sen. Michael W. Frerichs (D-52nd) in the Senate. The bill passed the General Assembly on the first attempt.

“The fast track of this legislation speaks to its relevance and value to our state,” says Tom Lia, Executive Director of the Northern Illinois Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board (NIFSAB). “We applaud Gov. Blagojevich for his recognition of that and for his prompt action to get the grants up and running.”

The Illinois Association of Fire Protection Districts (IAFPD) initiated the idea for the program. It gives the trustees a method to reward homeowner action that helps their districts reduce fire protection costs. The trustees will determine the grant amounts in accordance with the direct impact that sprinkler-protected homes will have on their districts.

“This is a true departure from classic top-down legislation,” Lia adds. “With this bill, the districts are in the driver’s seat, determining what is best for their constituents. It’s an original approach and a strategy that will pay the districts financial and public safety dividends for decades to come.”

Despite the fact that 80 percent of fire deaths occur in homes, fire sprinkler system installation in one- and two-family dwellings lacks far behind other occupancies, such as apartment buildings, hotels, hospitals and schools. National fire safety experts widely agree that fire sprinklers represent the best potential for a dramatic reduction in the thousands of lives lost to fire each year.

“The installation of a residential fire sprinkler system significantly reduces the likelihood of a major fire occurring in a home,” says George K. Michehl, executive director with the Illinois Fire Inspectors Association (IFIA). “The IAFPD recognized that and, as a result, recommended the grant program to provide some relief to those who make this life-saving decision.

Lia credits many members of the fire service for their hard work and support including Tom Harnsberger, IAFPD and Carol Fire Protection District, Michael Dillon and Cheri Breneman, IAFPD, Ron Kubicki, Northern Illinois Alliance of Fire Districts, George Michehl, IFIA and Dan Hermes, Illinois Fire Chiefs Association.

SOURCE Northern Illinois Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board

Additional article: Illinois Incentive for Home Fire Sprinklers

By Lloyd Alter – Treehugger.com

Not just because of safety; Fire Marshals have been demanding that for years. It is probably necessary if we want to build healthy as well as safe houses. Perhaps if houses had sprinklers, then manufacturers would not have to use flame retardants that are showing up in our blood.

Some, like penta-BDE and octa-BDE have been banned, but deca-BDE is still used “despite being tied to cancer, reproductive problems, irreversible changes in brain development – and being found in the breast milk of many women in the US. These and dozens of other flame retardant chemicals are used in drapes, carpets, upholstered furniture, electronics – pretty much anything in your home that contains polyurethane foam, textiles or plastics.”

A new study by Heather Stapleton of Duke University has been studying dust bunnies in Boston and found four different flame retardants. According to an article in the American Chemical Society Journal, “Tom Webster, associate chair of environmental health at Boston University’s School of Public Health and a paper coauthor, says scientists are particularly concerned about the potential risk that such chemicals pose to small children, who can unintentionally consume relatively large amounts of dust.”

So what happens if you want to build a healthy, all-natural house that is free of chemicals? It is almost impossible. You can buy some furniture with all-natural materials, and a lot of electronics manufacturers are looking at alternatives to PBDEs, but most are still using some form of flame retardant.

When retardant-laden materials do catch fire, (retardants, by definition, only slow it down) the chemicals are dangerous to breathe. One report says “The International Association of Firefighters supports bans on these chemicals because firefighters have been shown to be at much higher risk of cancer, heart, lung and other debilitating diseases caused by the dangerous gases created when fire retardants burn. If you are in your home when a fire starts, you are exposed to them too.”

Once again, it is a design problem; it would be superfluous to add fire retardants to furniture or electronics if there was a fire suppression system in every house, and the most effective system of all is a sprinkler system.

The Home Fire Sprinkler Association says that it adds 1% to 1.5% to the cost of a house. Insurance companies offer significant rate breaks. If every house or residential unit had them, we could stop using flame retardant chemicals to do what water does so easily.

Many natural materials burn; when you fill them with chemicals so that they don’t, they are no longer natural. Let’s deal with the problem the way we have for thousands of years; throw cold water on it.

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This is the second time in my life that I have written a letter for news publication. In 1986 while working for the State Fire Marshal in Florida, I was compelled to write a letter about a tragic fire that occurred in the Panhandle area of Florida. In the local news a report of a family of four, a young father and mother and two young children, died as a result of a home fire. The fire occurred in the early morning hours, while the family was sleeping. The fire was determined to be accidentally caused. In my letter then and now, the comments about the fire, unfortunately, remain the same today.

The typical news report for fire victims is the family may be assisted by a local civic agency, if they survive. The assistance would be an outpouring of community concern for the family, and they may receive temporary living and food assistance until they could get back on their feet. However if the scenario was of an unknown intruder committing the crime of killing a family comprised of a young father and mother and their two infant children, the public response would be somewhat different. Local residents would have a sense of uneasiness and concern about their own family’s welfare and safety. They would, rightfully so, demand more police presence in their neighborhood. The citizen may establish a community crime watch in their neighborhood. My concern is why don’t we have the same sense of outrage and uneasiness when people are affected by fire?

This was my concern over twenty years ago and still is today. To a degree, I understand the differences between the two types of threats. However, the final results are the same. People die from both fire and crime needlessly. Yet the solution to protect the victims of fire, in my opinion, requires much less effort than for protecting victims of crime. We could provide continuous protection of victims of crime with a policeman or other type of skilled security personnel twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, however this is not a reasonable or even practical solution to the crime problem. However, to provide this type of twenty-four hour, seven days a week protection for the victims of fire is much more realistic. Today, as was the case over 25 years ago, there are easy and cost-effective ways to protect our loved ones from fire. In fact the type of protection available is just like having a firefighter on duty in our home twenty-four hours a day. The installation of smoke detectors reduces the risk from negative effects of fire significantly, while the installation of a residential fire sprinkler system and smoke detectors is 99.6% successful in saving the lives of people from fire. The installation of fire sprinklers will also significantly reduce property loss.

So the question is why don’t we do more to protect our loved ones? The answer is not as clear-cut as you may think. The technology of smoke detectors and residential fire sprinklers today is far more superior than it was 25 years ago when I wrote my first letter to the editor, but the obstacles for the acceptance of the fire protection systems remain the same: the lack of understanding about residential fire sprinkler systems and “money”. Simply put, residential sprinkler systems are nothing more than a regular household water system, very similar to the plumbing system already in the homes, with sprinkler heads. These fire sprinkler heads only activate when they are heated up by a fire, and typically only one sprinkler head activates in a fire, not all of heads as depicted in movies. The cost of the sprinkler systems in a new home is about the same as a new stainless steel refrigerator. Therein lies the problem. Given a choice by the home owner to have a new stainless steel refrigerator in their home or a residential fire sprinkler, the vast majority of homeowners will choose the new refrigerator.

I hope that in 25 years, if I am still around, that I would not have to write another letter about a family needlessly dying in a house fire. Rather I would prefer to read about a family who had escaped from a fire that was shortly extinguished by a residential fire sprinkler and was waiting for their carpets to dry so they can move back home again that day. This would allow me the great satisfaction of knowing that I will never have to write this letter again.

Rick Ruh has over 30 years experience in Fire and Building Codes. He is presently the Fire Marshal of Cherokee County Fire and Emergency Services, a medium size department 25 miles north of Atlanta, GA. Prior to that he spent five years with TVA Fire and Life Safety as a Fire Protection Consultant serving some of the largest retailers in world. He has worked for the City of Raleigh, NC as both a Building and Fire Code Official providing plan review services to the design community. Rick retired from Broward County Fire Rescue (Ft. Lauderdale, Fl) as a Battalion Chief responsible for technical services in the plan review section.

By SASHA PAULSEN – Napa Valley Register

When we met for the second time to survey the progress of the house David Horobin is building in the Montecito area of Napa, the sky was murky with smoke from wildfires burning in California, as Horobin was describing the steps he’s taking to make his house “as fireproof as possible.”

For Horobin, a British architect and longtime proponent of living sensibly and sensitively with the earth, fireproofing is an essential part of building a sustainable house. In part, it’s personal: He and his wife Lynn lost a house in a 1986 Los Gatos wildfire. “I know how it feels,” he said.
That feeling he added is compounded when he hears reports of rebuilding the same kind of structure in the same place after a fire. “I watched a report about people who lost homes in San Diego fires in 2003 and 2007 and are rebuilding with stick frames — one definition of insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results.”

Not so for Horobin, who has incorporated a highly resistant shell, steel interior frame, insulated shutters, no ventilation and defensible space landscaping into the house he began building in June.
The result is what Napa County Fire Marshal Darren Drake calls “a poster project for fire-hardening,” in a potentially dangerous area for wildfires, the Alta Heights-Montecito area.

The choices he’s making will add about $3,000 to his costs, Horobin estimates, but every step not only insures that his house has the best possible chance of withstanding a wildfire, but will reap benefits in insurance rates.

Inside houses, the city now requires sprinklers, he said, an idea he fully supports for fires that start inside; but living in an area where there is a wildfire threat, sprinkles won’t be of much use when the outside of a house is gone. Horobin’s first step to help avert this is in his choice of building materials — ICF foam building blocks manufactured by Arxx — which snap together and then are filled with concrete. The resulting walls, about 11 and 1/2 inches thick, Horobin said, will yield about four hours protection if a wildfire moved through the area. “The foam may melt,” he said, “but you’re left with the frame.

“The evidence of this,” he added, “is when the Oakland fires hit, we had foam block houses standing amid the ashes.”

Inside the house he’s using steel rather than wood framing, but he noted it’s a choice he made more for quality than fireproofing. It’s hard today, he said, to find quality wood for interior frames. Wood, he said, is often “defective and warped — with steel each piece is consistent.”

“Fire seeks out the weakest links,” Horobin said. In this case, he said, it’s doors and windows.

To compensate for this, Horobin will be installing fireproof shutters that can be closed over both doors and windows. When they’re open, you’ll see an attractive wood laminate, on the inside of the shutters is a fireproof material called Densdeck, manufactured by Georgia Pacific, which will be the exposed surface when the shutters are closed.

Horobin’s design also takes into consideration another threat that’s emerging as a significant one, according to Drake: attic vents that can draw in embers from fires that in turn, smoulder and erupt into flames, long after firefighters have moved on. “Burning embers attack the smallest openings. What we’re finding from a lot of post-damage inspection is that houses are burning from the inside out.”

Ventilation is necessary for attics; without it an attic has unhealthy air with potential for mold and rot, Horobin said. “Vents do what they’re supposed to do,” Horobin said, “they draw in air — but when a fire is burning outside they can also draw in embers.”

Horobin’s solution is to build a house without attics. “With cathedral ceilings, there’s no need to ventilate,” he said.

“And I get wonderful cathedral ceilings,” Lynn Horobin said.

“He’s restricting the opportunity for embers,” Drake said, noting that new materials on the market make it possible to retrofit vents on existing houses .

To top it all off, literally, Horobin’s roof will be constructed using a “structural insulated panel system,” called SIPS, which Horobin said is “double the standard” for fire resistance. He’ll also be using the SIPS system on the roof overhangs, another place that can draw in and trap embers.

“If there’s nothing for it to burn, the fire moves on,” Horobin said.

The final element in a fire-wise house, Horobin said, is the landscaping — removing burnable debris, sticking to trees and plants less likely to burn, and creating the defensible space around the house. For this he’s turning to Tara Burns of Inside & Out Landscaping.

“If you look at all the ingredients, he’s really adding to the pot,” Drake said of Horobin’s design.

And the payoff for Horobin’s plan is already evident, Horobin noted in a recent e-mail to the Register.

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By Jenna Johnson – Washington Post

When the St. Mary’s County commissioners voted unanimously in November to require sprinkler systems in most new single-family houses and duplexes that use public water, they promised to create a tax relief measure to offset the cost of the systems.

But on Tuesday, the Board of County Commissioners said only people who are not required to add the system, but do so voluntarily, will be eligible for it. That might include, for example, residents who build a house on an acre in a more rural part of the county.

The new ordinance requires all households in developments with more than six dwellings that are built after Feb. 1 to have a sprinkler system. Offering the credit to all those new houses would have required the commissioners to add $343,000 to the county’s budget for fiscal 2009. By allowing just those who volunteer, the amount dropped to $26,250.

County residents and developers have protested the ordinance because of the added expense to home buyers. A report by the county Department of Land Use and Growth Management estimated that installing sprinklers could cost $1 to $1.50 a square foot of livable space.

For example, the average custom house in the county is 3,370 square feet, so installation could cost $3,370 to $5,055. For houses with low water pressure or ones that use a well, the system could cost an additional $1,000 to $2,000.

Maryland law requires sprinklers in all new multifamily houses and townhouses. Several Maryland cities and counties, including Prince George’s and Charles, require sprinklers in all new houses.

The St. Mary’s ordinance, which took effect Feb. 1, was not as broad as Commissioner Thomas A. Mattingly Sr. (D-Leonardtown) and local volunteer firefighters had hoped. Mattingly originally proposed an ordinance that would have mandated sprinklers in all new houses, including those in rural areas where water is supplied by private wells.

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By MARI ALVAREZ – Texas Cable News

During the past week, the Austin area has seen five apartment complex fires. Combined, they’ve displaced at least 60 people and driven home the importance of renter’s insurance.

Fire tore through the Retreat at Barton Springs in South Austin on July 27, damaging 18 units. The Retreat was the location for what was one of five apartment fires last week.

Fellow tenants have collected donations to help those displaced by the fire, but for those without renter’s insurance, this is now all they have to rely on.

Linda Goss, an agent with State Farm insurance, says renter’s insurance can cost as little as $10 a month and cover hundreds of thousands of dollars in property lost in a fire. Premium discounts are also available.

“Sprinklers offer a discount — your deadbolt locks, your fire extinguishers, your sprinklers. The construction of the apartment itself makes a difference in what someone pays for insurance,” said Goss.

Most plans will also cover a range of emergencies.

“Wind driven rain, it can cover liability — if you’re liable for a fire…. Also medical costs — say a dog were to bite a neighbor,” said Goss.

Goss says apartments within Austin must meet fire safety codes as mandated by county ordinance, which includes things like fire extinguishers.

However, insurance does not require those items for coverage.

“You know, you see people on TV, and they talk about the baby crib, the wedding pictures — that would all be covered, if you had renter’s insurance,” said Goss.

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By Rosemarie Bernardo – Honolulu Star-Bulletin

A lit cigarette butt caused a condominium fire at a Waikiki high-rise yesterday.

About 40 firefighters responded to a blaze on the top floor of Kaimana Villa, 2550 Kuhio Ave. Firefighters arrived at unit 2501 at 12:08 p.m. and contained the fire at 12:20 p.m.

Damage to the unit and its contents was estimated at $30,000.

Capt. Earl Kealoha, spokesman of the Honolulu Fire Department, said a male resident apparently discarded a cigarette butt into a small plastic receptacle on the balcony before he left his condo about an hour and a half before the fire. The cigarette butt wasn’t fully extinguished and began to smolder, igniting other material within the receptacle and the receptacle itself.

Firefighters arrived within minutes and prevented the fire from roaring throughout the entire unit. Nearby units and buildings were not affected by the blaze.

The blaze started on the 25th floor of the Kaimana Villa building on Kuhio Avenue just after noon Tuesday.

The American Red Cross Hawaii Chapter is assisting with living arrangements for the resident and another occupant.

As firefighters responded, some residents of the high-rise were slow to evacuate and others declined to do so.

“People were still watering their plants and cruising,” said resident Jessica Arakawa, 24, who walked down more than a dozen flights of stairs to evacuate the building after she was alerted by a fire alarm.

Arakawa, who lives on the 19th floor, saw black soot and smoke billowing from the balcony six floors above her before she left the building. She said she saw firefighters containing the fire to the affected unit.

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The United States Fire Administration (USFA), in partnership with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), have released the findings of a research project to demonstrate the value of residential fire sprinklers on the heat release rate of a dry Christmas tree fire.

Previously I commented on a video released by NIST showing just how quickly a dry Christmas tree can burn. This original video shocked millions, especially those families that bring a Christmas tree into their home for the holidays. A primary message to the public was “get those Christmas trees out of your house before they dry out!”

What an important safety message to spread considering that according to NIST, trees used indoors during the holiday season account for approximately 400 house fires each year. The consequences of these fires include 10 deaths, 80 injuries and more than $15 million in property damage.

Now USFA and NIST have taken things an important step further. Their research and findings report and the videos below validate the incredible effectiveness of residential fire sprinkler systems in controlling even the intense burn of a dry Christmas tree.

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Christmas Tree Fire – No Sprinklers

(no audio) Ignition occurs at 0 seconds; flames spread to ceiling at 7 seconds; tree is fully engulfed in flames at 25 seconds; furniture upholstery starts to melt at 30 seconds; sofa burns at 45 seconds; compartment transitions to flashover at 60 seconds; damage to compartment is consistent with flashover conditions as there is burn damage throughout the room from floor to ceiling at 1 minute and 25 seconds (end of video).

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Christmas Tree Fire – With Sprinklers

(no audio) Ignition occurs at 0 seconds; flames spread to ceiling at 7 seconds; sprinkler activates at 10 seconds; much of tree is engulfed in flames at 20 seconds; tree continues to burn at 1 minute; tree continues to burn at 1 minute and 30 seconds; small portion of sofa in contact with the tree ignites at 2 minutes and 30 seconds; fire is completely extinguished by sprinkler within 3 minutes and 30 seconds; water from the sprinkler kept portions of the tree below point of ignition from burning, limited the flame spread on the furnishings, and the compartment did not flashover at 7 minutes and 10 seconds (end of video).

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In my comments on the original video released I speculated that “a fire sprinkler would not only slow down the fire and reduce the amount of smoke, in some cases it may even be able to extinguish the fire and save the home from destruction.” Now, thanks to this further research, the life and property saving capabilities of residential fire sprinklers is validated once again.

To see how damaging a real house fire can be without residential fire sprinklers visit Home Fire Loss Case Study.

To see real examples of people who have taken action to install fire sprinkler systems in their homes visit Installing Residential Fire Sprinklers Case Study.

The United States Fire Administration (USFA) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have completed a report, Impact of a Residential Sprinkler on the Heat Release Rate of a Christmas Tree Fire, which demonstrates the value of residential sprinklers on the heat release rate of a dry Christmas tree fire. As a part of this effort, videos are also available of the project’s experiments comparing a dry Christmas tree fire in rooms with and without a sprinkler and the ignition of a dry tree versus a properly maintained tree.

“All Americans must be protected against death, injury, and property loss resulting from fire — especially over the holidays,” said U.S. Fire Administrator Greg Cade. “Residential sprinklers can not only contain, but in most cases, put out a fire even before the local firefighters arrive. Residential sprinklers are able to prevent some of the tragic consequences of the more than 400,000 residential structures fires that occur annually in the United States.”

This report and accompanying videos demonstrate that even under conditions of extreme fire growth, a single sprinkler was able to prevent flashover, control the tree fire, and limit the spread of fire to other objects. In addition, properly maintaining a cut tree is important to retaining high moisture content in the needles of the tree, which will limit accidental ignition and prevent rapid flame spread. A tree that has dry needles can readily ignite with a flaming source and generate heat release rates capable of causing flashover in residential scale rooms.

“This project’s experiments demonstrate that a small amount of water can have a significant impact on a fire,” said NIST fire protection engineer, Dan Madrzykowski. “In the experiments where the tree was maintained, the moisture contained in the tree provides resistance to ignition. In an experiment with a dry tree, a residential sprinkler flowing 9 gallons per minute controlled the fire.”

As fire marshals, fire chiefs, and other fire service officials across the nation are working to promote and advance residential fire sprinklers, the report and videos could be extremely useful tools in demonstrating the advantages of home fire sprinkler systems.

Previously the USFA and NIST illustrated, on video, the dramatic affects of fire when it ignites a dry Scotch Pine tree. This video has been shown on television stations, Internet sites, and in training classes across the nation and around the world for the past several years. As a result of the video’s popularity and success in communicating such an important fire prevention message, multiple requests were made by fire service officials and fire prevention educators to develop this report and videos of the project’s experiments that would document the impact of a residential fire sprinkler system on a similar tree fire.