I was dismayed to see a recent post by Nomadic Mom, a blogger who has come to the attention of home fire sprinkler advocates since she posted a blog entry attacking fire sprinklers. It seems she would rather have the potential for total destruction from an uncontrolled fire in her home than a limited amount of water damage from a single operating sprinkler. It also appears that her idea of fire sprinklers is based on Hollywood movies and not reality. It would be almost comical if it wasn't so sad. Moms who care about the safety of their families should be clamoring for this life safety feature in their homes and need to know one simple fact - sprinklers save lives.
Mommy bloggers are becoming increasingly popular and there is some great information that can be derived from some of their posts. However, Nomadic Mom's information, if adhered to, puts families at risk.
The reality is that your risk of dying in a fire is cut by about 80 percent with home fire sprinklers. She missed that point. She also thinks 3,000 people dying in home fires a year is very small in the scheme of things. Tell that to the parent, spouse ir sibling who has lost a loved one in a home fire; or tell it to the family of a firefighter who perished battling one of these blazes.
The kind of misinformation and misunderstanding about home fire sprinklers included in her post make our jobs difficult. She and others can find out the facts at www.firesprinklerinitiative.
Perhaps what nomadic Mom needs to consider is that water will only make her family uncomfortable for a short time and that most things damaged by water, such as keepsakes and buildings, are recoverable at a relatively low price whereas whereas burnt keepsakes tend to stay burnt and rebuilding from fire damage takes far longer and cost far more than recovering from water damage. An experiment relating to the impermanence of water damage versus the permanence of fire damage. Take a one hundred dollar bill and soak it in a bowl of water overnight or stake it to the ground under the lawn sprinklers. Let it dry and see if you can still spend it. Now take that hundred dollar bill and set it on fire. Now call the fire department. I'll bet one hundred dollars that by the time they arrive the bill will be damaged beyond saving. Of course I won the bet but now you don't have that hundred dollars to pay me.
Posted by: Ron Greenmam | 06/25/2009 at 10:51 AM