Residential Fire Sprinklers .com

Protecting Your Home & Family

By Sonja Elmquist - Greensboro News-Record

A firefighter for 17 years, Jim Robinson has seen fire’s effect on people’s lives over and over.

“I’ve stood on someone’s front yard and I’ve handed someone their Bible out of their rubble pile,” Robinson said. His belief: If everyone had sprinklers, “we could pretty much give them their whole house back.”

Now building his dream house far from the city down a narrow gravel road, he’s not taking any chances. His sprinklers were installed Tuesday.

“Do I want my house to burn down? No way,” Robinson said. “A sprinkler system is like having a firetruck sitting in your front yard 24/7.”

What was a choice for Robinson could eventually be a requirement for anyone building a new house.

An international code-making body recently approved a recommendation that could mean that, beginning in 2012, new one- and two-family homes built in North Carolina might be required to have fire sprinklers.

Commonly seen as invasive, messy and expensive, sprinklers rarely pop up high on home buyers’ — and home builders’ — list of add-ons.

But firefighters say that perception doesn’t match reality and could cost lives.

The N.C. Office of the State Fire Marshal supported the adoption of the requirement in the 2009 International Residential Code, said Kristin Milam, a spokeswoman for the agency.

The International Code Council approved the change at its annual conference in September.

Most states, including North Carolina, use the International Residential Code as the basis for their state and local residential codes.

The National Association of Home Builders opposed the change because of the systems’ potential to discharge accidentally and cause water damage. The systems also need maintenance to remain functional, according to news releases of the association.

The earliest the N.C. Building Code Council could adopt the revised international code would be 2012, Milam said.

Two recent fires in the city illustrate sprinkler advocates’ point, said David Douglas, Greensboro’s fire marshal.

“The circumstances are identical, but the outcomes are dramatically different,” Douglas said. According to the fire department:

Ten months apart, each in their own home, Gwendolyn Williams and Tracy Travis heated oil on their stoves. Each walked into another room, forgetting about the oil in the kitchen.

Williams went to sleep. When her smoke detector went off, she remembered the oil, went to the kitchen, saw it on fire and ran outside to call 911. The only damage to her apartment was a mark on the floor where the pot landed when it fell from the stove. Sprinklers had put out the fire before firefighters arrived.

When Travis went back into his kitchen to check on the oil, he found it on fire. He tried to put it out by spraying it with water from the sprayer on his kitchen sink, but when the water hit the hot oil, the oil erupted, burning Travis and spreading the fire.

By the time firefighters arrived, the kitchen was gutted and there was heat and smoke damage to the rest of the 1,300-square-foot house. The house was condemned.

Travis was hospitalized in the burn center at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center with serious burns to his head and arms.

Although people are cautioned not to put water on a home grease fire, the 12 to 15 gallons of water dispensed by a residential sprinkler is adequate to cool the oil and suppress eruptions caused by steam from the smaller amount of water coming from a sink, Douglas said.

For the past six years, fires in dwellings with sprinklers have caused far less damage than fires in those without, according to fire department data.

Since July 1, fire damage in homes with sprinklers has averaged one fifth of the amount of damage in homes without sprinklers according to data from the fire department.

For the entire six-year period, damage in homes with sprinklers has averaged about $6,000, while damage in homes without them has averaged about $20,000, according to the data.

But minimizing damage is secondary to the main purpose, which is to save lives.

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By ERIN COX - HometownAnnapolis.com

In the wake of a deadly fire last week, Council Chairman Cathy Vitale has revived her plan to mandate a sprinkler system for every new home.

Ms. Vitale, R-Severna Park, introduced a bill Monday night that would expand the county’s sprinkler requirement to include all new single-family homes and duplexes, a move to protect both homeowners and firefighters, as well as the properties.

“When you look at the most recent death in Anne Arundel County related to a dwelling fire, it’s disheartening to hear that it could have been avoided if the home had sprinklers, which could have contained the fire in one room,” said Ms. Vitale, whose husband is a career firefighter with the county. “Sprinklers save lives. It is the simplest of messages.”

A 42-year-old man died Oct. 13 in an accidental home fire on Mace Road in the Bay Ridge area, the fourth fire-related death in Anne Arundel this year. The house did not have working smoke detectors or a sprinkler system, officials said.

Fire officials have been pressing the council for four years to make such a move. Home builders have traditionally opposed across-the-board sprinkler rules for cost reasons.

Ms. Vitale drafted similar legislation a year ago, calling for sprinklers in every new house, adding them to the list of buildings that already require them to pass building inspection. Sprinkler are already required for townhomes, commercial buildings and apartment complexes.

The bill was never introduced. Ms. Vitale said it was held up by the administration’s concerns about the bill’s technical requirements. County Executive John R. Leopold said this morning he has concerns about technical elements in the current legislation but still supports it.

“I would hope to work through those issues because the central public safety policy is sound,” Mr. Leopold said, adding. “There can be no greater priority than public safety.”

As Fire Safety Awareness Month rolled around again this month, Ms. Vitale had new arguments to bolster her bill this year. The International Code Council, which writes building safety codes widely used as a template for local jurisdictions, incorporated mandatory sprinklers into residential building codes last month.

Anne Arundel’s volunteer firefighters have been lobbying for four years for the county to incorporate sprinklers into the building code, said Craig Harman, president of the Anne Arundel County Volunteer Firefighters Association. He said he and seven other volunteers traveled to a September meeting of the International Code Council and helped pass the mandatory sprinkler bill.

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By Lew Sichelman - Los Angeles Times

Six people were in the St. Michaels, Md., house when the smoke alarm went off two summers ago. The sound woke one, who was a light sleeper, according to news reports. And she managed to rouse two of her friends. But three others died in the blaze.

The house was just outside the town limits of the Eastern Shore getaway, which had recently adopted an ordinance requiring all new homes to have a sprinkler system. Consequently, it didn’t have one.

Advocates of sprinkler systems say that sprinklers not only would have saved the lives of those three people but damage to the property would have been minimal.

It is the same argument sprinkler proponents have been using for years. And they’ve finally been heard.

In an overwhelming 1,283-470 vote late last month, the International Code Council (ICC) meeting in Minneapolis mandated that sprinklers be required in all one- and two-family homes and town houses built to the International Residential Code (IRC) as of Jan. 1, 2011.

Builders who have been adamantly opposed to sprinklers cried foul. After years of beating back sprinkler advocates, the deck was stacked against them this time when 900 fire officials showed up unexpectedly to vote for the proposal.

The National Assn. of Home Builders won’t talk about the decision. “We are not doing any interviews,” said public affairs representative Donna Reichle. But in the association’s weekly online member newsletter published shortly after the vote, Pinopolis, S.C., builder James Anderson, chairman of the NAHB’s Construction, Codes and Standards Committee, had this to say:

“We welcome the insight and experience that fire officials bring to the code-development process because our codes are focused on life-safety issues. However, it seems clear that these particular officials were focused on one issue only without the benefit of perspective regarding how such mandates jibe with hundreds of other code proposals considered at this hearing. That’s unfortunate, because such reasoned discussion is what the model-code process was designed to accomplish.”

In a statement to the media, NAHB President Sandy Dunn, a builder from West Virginia, said her members were not opposed to sprinklers per se. Rather, they are rankled by mandates “because the evidence is clear that [sprinklers] are not the right solution for every home.”

Even with the code council’s approval, the long-running battle over residential fire sprinklers is far from over because IRC codes aren’t enforceable until they are adopted by local jurisdictions.

“Our members will continue to advocate for cost-effective construction and life-safety measures through the model-code process,” Dunn said in her statement.

The sprinkler mandate will first appear in the 2009 IRC, which will be published by the end of the year. That gives states two full years to adopt the requirement. Forty-six states use the IRC as the basis for regulating residential construction.

The NAHB says its opposition isn’t about money. But isn’t it always about money?

Based on an average cost of $1.50 per square foot and an average house of 2,340 square feet, the typical sprinkler system would add $3,510 to the price of a typical house. And that’s not counting the usual 10% markup.

It’s a small price to pay, fire-safety advocates counter, to save just one life. “The cost to put sprinklers into the home where my daughter died would have been less than what I had to pay for the flowers at her funeral,” Kaaren Mann, a Simpsonville, S.C., mother of a fire victim, reportedly testified at the ICC meeting.

The housing lobby favors hard-wired, interconnected smoke detectors, which are already in the building code, over sprinklers. The rules call for the alarms to be installed in every bedroom and on every floor.

Today, it’s estimated that more than 95% of all homes have smoke detectors. And fire-safety experts say they’ve been a godsend.

Fire deaths have declined dramatically over the last three decades as the detectors have become more common, they say. But they also offer up these sobering statistics: More than 3,000 people die each year from fire, and a home burns every 80 seconds.

Residential sprinklers are the only fire-protection technology that works to rapidly contain fire, effectively giving families more time to escape the deadly heat and poisonous gases of an unchecked blaze, according to the IRC Fire Sprinkler Coalition, an association of more than 100 fire services, building-code officials and safety organizations in 45 states.

The potential impact of this code change is discussed at “Residential Fire Sprinklers Market Growth and Labor Demand Analysis“

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By Anna Simon - Greenville News

Two fires that destroyed much of a senior-living complex early Sunday have been ruled arson, Anderson Fire Chief Jack Abraham said Monday.

While investigators piece together clues from the scene, the American Red Cross in Anderson County is working to help residents who lost their homes in the fire find housing, said Mary Thomas, chief fundraising officer for the agency’s Upstate Chapter.

Residents of all 45 occupied units in the complex have had to leave their apartments, Abraham said. Utilities have been turned off because of the extent of the damage by fire, water and smoke, Abraham said.

An investigation by the state Law Enforcement Division Arson Tack Force and Anderson police and fire investigators has concluded that both fires at Heatherwood Apartments were arson, Abraham said.

Abraham said authorities believe the fires are connected, and asked that anyone with any information that may be helpful concerning the investigation of the fires call the Arson Hotline at 1-800-922-7766.

Firefighters responding to a 1:27 a.m. fire Sunday found magazines burning on a table in the lobby. A second fir that appears to have started on the second floor was reported at 4:35 a.m. Sunday and destroyed much of the complex, Abraham said.

Six residents were transported to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, along with two police officers who suffered from smoke inhalation, Abraham said. Another 45 displaced residents were taken to a Red Cross shelter.

Many of the displaced residents are staying with family members, but others need assistance, Thomas said.

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Residents of Heatherwood Apartments in Anderson were homeless this morning after a “suspicious” fire destroyed much of senior-living complex early today.

The fire was reported at 4:35 a.m., just hours after firefighters had responded to another fire at the same building. City fire chief Jack Abraham said when firefighters responded to the first call, at 1:27 a.m., they found magazines burning on a table in the lobby.

The cause of the second fire is being investigated today by SLED, Anderson City Fire and Anderson City Police arson investigators.

“It is suspicious, because it was the second fire of the night in the same building, and basically in the same location, which was the center lobby area, only the second fire appears to have started on the second floor.”

Of the first fire, Abraham said the magazines “would have had to have been set on fire intentionally.”

Abraham said all of the building?s tenants had been accounted for as of mid-Sunday morning. Six residents had to be transported to the hospital ?with non-life-threatening injuries,? Abraham said, along with two city police officers who suffered from smoke inhalation.

The Red Cross opened a shelter at Cornerstone Church, and 45 displaced residents were transported to the shelter, Abraham said.

The building was not equipped with a sprinkler system, which Abraham said was not a code violation because when the apartments were constructed, sprinklers were not required.

“If this building had been sprinklered, as with most residential structure fires, the damage would have been minimal and the occupants would have been eating breakfast at their breakfast tables, not dislodged for probably months,” he said.

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The Department of Homeland Security’s United States Fire Administration (USFA) has issued a report today examining the causes and characteristics of fires occurring in residential structures and buildings. The report, Residential Structure and Building Fires, was developed by the National Fire Data Center, part of USFA.

The report presents an overview of residential structure fires and trends for one-and two-family, multifamily, and other residential structures. This report also addresses residential building fires for each of the three residential occupancy types.

The report is based primarily on 2005 NFIRS data and the 2005 National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) survey data. In 2005, there were an estimated 396,000 residential structure fires, resulting in 3,055 civilian fire deaths, 13,825 civilian injuries, and $6.9 billion in loss.

“Most fires and related deaths and injuries in residences are preventable,” said United States Fire Administrator Greg Cade. “It is important that you take the necessary precautions to ensure your home is fire safe. Install and maintain smoke alarms and sprinklers, and establish and practice your escape plan. By being prepared, you can help reduce the chances of fire injury or even death.”

Fires in residential buildings—a subset of residential structures—accounted for 95 percent of residential structure fires and fatal fires, 97 percent of residential structure fires with injuries, and 95 percent of fires with dollar loss. There were an estimated 376,500 residential building fires in 2005. These fires claimed the lives of 2,895 civilians and injured an additional 13,375 civilians.

Cooking (41 percent) and heating (13 percent) are the leading causes of residential building fires. Cooking also accounts for approximately 25 percent of fires that injure civilians. Smoking (20 percent) is the leading cause of fatal residential building fires.

Download the Residential Structure and Building Fires Report

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 /PRNewswire/ — The national nonprofit Home Safety Council (HSC) has released new national survey results revealing that only 37 percent of respondents have taken any actions at home to prevent fires and burns — the third leading cause of injury-related death in the home.

When asked about fire safety practices, a mere 13 percent of respondents said they have planned and practiced a family fire drill — an essential step that increases the ability to respond quickly and appropriately in the event of a fire. While the majority of fatal fires happen at night, HSC also found that only half of those surveyed (51 percent) have installed smoke alarms in their bedrooms. Additionally, only eight percent of respondents live in a home protected by fire sprinklers.

“Unfortunately, our research indicates that too many families don’t understand or appreciate the danger of home fires and as a result, have not taken even the most basic steps to prepare for a fire emergency,” said Meri-K Appy, president of the Home Safety Council. “With less than three minutes to escape if a fire occurs, every home needs a well-rehearsed escape plan and working smoke alarms. They are critical to saving lives.”

The Home Safety Council is also a strong advocate for increased installation of home fire sprinkler systems, which will put out or keep the fire small until the fire department arrives.

Home Fire Sprinkler Systems: An Added Layer of Protection

With recent research revealing that 41 percent of adults do not know that fire sprinklers are a safety option for their home, HSC is working to raise awareness for this life-saving technology by educating consumers that a residential sprinkler system is the best protection from fires.

Home fire sprinklers detect the high heat from a fire and put water on the flames within seconds of a fire starting, limiting the smoke, heat and poison gases that a fire produces. Sprinklers will put the fire out or keep it small until firefighters arrive; giving residents more time to escape. Fire sprinklers also protect property and belongings.

If you are buying a home or moving to a new apartment, choose one with a fire sprinkler system. If you are building a home or remodeling your existing home, consider having a home fire sprinkler system installed. Talk to your local fire department for help finding a qualified home fire sprinkler installer.

Visit MySafeHome.org to Create a Home Fire Safety Plan

Through its new, interactive online safety destination — MySafeHome.org — HSC provides simple room-by-room tips to help families make each area of the home safe from fire dangers, indoors and out. The site offers the opportunity to explore a virtual home and learn about the safety actions and technology that can protect against fires and the other leading causes of home injury — in every area of the home. MySafeHome.org offers one-click access to simple, straightforward tips and checklists to help families take a room-by- room approach to make the entire home safe.