NFPA's Fire Sprinkler Initiative

Bremerton WA Completes New Sprinkler Video

The Bremerton WA Fire Department and Bates Community College have completed a video project on the benefits of home fire sprinklers. It is another great example of seeing is believing when it comes to the value of home fire sprinklers. The Bremerton Fire Department, Kitsap County Fire Chiefs Association, the Kitsap Fire Marshal's Office and the Bremerton Housing Authority joined together to put on the live demonstration. The piece makes several key points including that your risk of dying in a home fire is cut by at least 80% when sprinklers are present.

Lorraine Carli

Christmas Tree Fires and Home Fire Sprinklers

Based on data from 2003 through 2007 fire departments responded to an estimated 250 home fires annually that began with Christmas trees. These fires caused an annual average of 14 civilian deaths, 26 civilian injuries, and $13.8 million in direct property damage. On average, one of 18 reported Christmas tree fires resulted in a death.

Home fire sprinklers can make a difference reducing this risk as evidenced by a fire in Frederick County, MD that displaced the Mansfield family but enabled them to escape with their lives. As reported in the Frederick News Post "the fire started in the Christmas tree, which burned quickly causing the residential fire sprinkler system to activate." According to Mike Dmuchowski, spokesman for the Frederick County Division of Fire and Rescue Services "had the home not had a residential fire sprinkler system, the damage would have been much worse."

Christmas tree fires spread very rapidly, much more so than other ordinary combustibles, providing occupants very little time to escape. Various Christmas tree fire demonstrations, including the difference a home fire sprinkler can make, may be viewed at the NIST website

Christmas tree safety is important. Please follow NFPA recommendations: Download Carli_holiday_safety_2007_2 and other important holiday safety tips

Wishing you a safe and happy holiday season

Maria Figueroa

CBS Early Show Touts Benefits of Sprinklers

Working in conjunction with the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition, CBS Early Show Home Improvement Expert Danny Lipford conducted a two-part demonstration on just how effective home fire sprinklers are. Take a look at both parts which aired on December 23rd
Watch CBS News Videos Online
Watch CBS News Videos Online

Lorraine Carli

A Home Fire Sprinkler Saves Christmas - Lingohocken Fire Company

This is a Christmas story sent by email from Chief Greg Jakubowski of the Lingohocken Fire Company in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

A few minutes before 1 pm on Christmas Day, several dozen firefighters from the Lingohocken and Warwick Fire Cos. (Bucks County, PA Stations 35, 95 and 66) were dispatched to a home in the 3100 block of Rushland Road in Wrightstown Township for a report of a fire in an attached garage of a 3-year old house. An accidental fire had ignited in some storage in the garage and began to spread. There were 2 cars in the 3-bay garage, including a Ford Escape and a Mercedes CLK 320. Normally, this incident would require deploying all of these firefighters, and perhaps more, for 1-2 hours to control and fully extinguish the fire, which would have likely spread to the storage, vehicles, and tools in the garage, and possibly to the master bedroom located directly above the garage. The home is located in an area that would require firefighters to truck water in, as there are no hydrants nearby. Damage most likely would have been in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the residents would have likely had to relocate for weeks while their home was being repaired.

However, thanks to the foresight of the Wrightstown Township supervisors, and the efforts of the fire marshal’s office in Wrightstown, this home was equipped with residential sprinklers, including in the garage area. One sprinkler activated, fully extinguishing the fire prior to the fire department’s arrival, 7 minutes after the call.

The entire article may be viewed at Statter911.com

Maria Figueroa

Firefighter says home sprinklers worth the cost

The following letter appeared on GoErie.com on December 22. The author, Thomas Cullen of the Firemen's Association of the State of Pennsylvania, wrote in response to an earlier letter entitled: "Mandated sprinklers not worth the cost"

"The fact is that mandated sprinklers save lives and property. In 2008, there were 403,000 residential fires, killing 2,780 civilians, as well as a number of firefighters. These fires also resulted in 13,560 injuries and caused $8.5 billion in damages. The top two causes were: cooking, 26 percent; and, heating, 11 percent. Smoking caused only 2 percent of the fires, and cigarettes were not the leading cause of deaths.

It's true that most people die from smoke inhalation, not from burns. But the fact is that smoke detectors and sprinklers save lives. In the residential fires noted above, 38 percent of the homes had operating smoke detectors. Fire deaths were reduced by 63 percent in homes with smoke detectors compared to homes without a smoke detector. Fire deaths were reduced by 69 percent in homes with sprinklers. If a home has both smoke detectors and sprinklers, the fire deaths were reduced by 82 percent."

Read the entire letter from Mr. Cullen.

On home fire sprinklers and EMS

The following article, by Gary Ludwig, is reprinted with permission from Firehouse.com.

"When I learned in late October that the International Code Council (ICC) voted at its annual conference in Baltimore to keep residential sprinklers on the book despite strong opposition from the National Association of Home Builders, I could not help but think what the leaders of the home builders group were thinking. The conversation inside their cigar-smoke-filled offices at the home builders group might have gone something like this: "Mr. Moneybags, we have bad news from Baltimore. The International Code Council voted 7-4 to keep residential sprinklers in the International Residential Code. This takes effect on Jan. 1, 2011, and requires sprinkler systems in new single-family homes after this date."

Read Mr. Ludwig's entire article.

Read the December issue of the Fire Sprinkler Initiative newsletter

The December issue of Fire Sprinkler Initiative Update, our monthly e-newsletter, has hit the streets. (Read the issue or subscribe today - it's easy and free!)

In this issue, we highlight a new two-part podcast that features Jamie Lyons, senior engineer at Newport Partners in Maryland and author of the Integration of Residential Sprinklers with Water Supply Systems. Jamie talks about how the research was conducted and the key findings from the report.

We also talk about a new USFA campaign to urge homeowners to install smoke alarms and residential sprinklers, and offer up a video demonstration of how to install and maintain smoke alarms.

And on our blog, NFPA's Maria Figueroa takes on the facts about insurance and home fire sprinklers -- and how amending model safety codes by removing sprinkler requirements could have a negative impact on your wallet.

- Mike Hazell

Home Fire Sprinklers - ISO Facts

ISO, an independent statistical, rating, and advisory organization that serves the property/casualty insurance industry and the leading supplier of underwriting information, advisory loss costs, supplementary rating information, and standardized policy information language to insurers in all fifty states and the District of Columbia offers the following advisory on its ISO Fact Sheet on how residential sprinklers are reflected in its residential property programs.

 

Premium discounts

The standard ISO Dwelling Fire and Homeowners Programs contain available premium credits for installation of fire sprinkler protection up to a maximum of:

• 13% for full sprinkler protection that includes all areas of a home, including attics, bathrooms, closets, and attached structures;
• 8% for fire sprinkler protection of all areas of a home excluding the attic, bathrooms, closets, and attached structures as long as fire detection equipment is installed in those areas where sprinklers are omitted;

Individual insurer programs may provide different credits.

(The cost assessment report found insurance discounts ranging from 5% to 12%, with an average of 7%.)

Sprinkler leakage coverage

The presence of a residential sprinkler system may raise concern about the risk of accidental water leakage from the system. ISO’s standard Homeowners policy forms provide coverage for "…accidental discharge or overflow of water…from within a…fire protective sprinkler system…".  This coverage is included in the basic policy. There is no extra charge for this coverage. Also, coverage is provided for water damage related to the suppression or extinguishment of a covered fire.

Individual insurer programs may provide variations to this coverage.

Building Code Effectiveness Grading Schedule (BCGES©)

The ISO Building Code Effectiveness Grading Schedule (BCEGS®) is used to review public building code enforcement agencies and to develop a classification that is provided as advisory information to insurers who may use it for insurance underwriting and rating.

 

POSSIBLE IMPACT OF AMMENDING THE SPRINKLER REQUIREMENT FROM THE CODE

If the requirement for automatic fire sprinkler protection of residential dwellings was removed by legislation or local ordinance, BCEGS would not provide full recognition for adoption of code without amendments. A building code enforcement agency that adopted a code with amendments that weaken hazard mitigation issues, as defined in the model codes and referenced standards, would not receive maximum recognition for code adoption. This statement is vitally important to the debate over one- in two family dwelling fire sprinklers.

The National Flood Insurance Program's (NFIP) Community Rating System (CRS) is a voluntary incentive program that recognizes and encourages community floodplain management activities that exceed the minimum NFIP requirements. FEMA and the insurance industry look for uniformity in code adoption because the code development process takes into account the total effect of all relevant factors. Amendments to the code affect the structural integrity of the entire code document. In this case, the penalty can have devastating effects.

The table below shows the credit points earned, classification awarded, and premium reductions given for communities in the NFIP CRS. As you will note, every change in Community Classification results in a 5% change in flood insurance premium.

Credit Points Class Premium Reduction     4,500+ 1 45%   4,000 – 4,499 2 40%   3,500 – 3,999 3 35%   3,000 – 3,499 4 30%   2,500 – 2,999 5 25%   2,000 – 2,499 6 20%   1,500 – 1,999 7 15%   1,000 – 1,499 8 10%   500 – 999 9 5%   0 – 499 10 0

The following is from the FEMA/NFIP classification system manual:

b. Class 7 Prerequisite:

In addition to having sufficient points, in order to be a Class 7 or better, a community must have received a classification of 6/6 or better under the Building Code Effectiveness Grading Schedule (BCEGS). Both BCEGS classifications (residential/personal and commercial) must be a class 6 or better (emphasis added).

c. Class 4 Prerequisite: In order to be a Class 4 or better, a community MUST:

• Have received a classification of 5/5 or better under the BCEGS

The BCEGS penalty, although small (about 4%), can mean the difference between one class and the next-better class. The CRS Eligible Communities  table contains the rating ofeach of the eligible communities. Numerous communities have received a 5 or 6 rating. The economic impact on these communities is greater, should their rating class change.  A higher BCEGS rating will reduce the amount of hazard mitigation funding available. The communities, the fire departments, and the insurance-buying homeowners have potentially millions of dollars riding on this decision.

This important information is vital when considering amending the home fire sprinkler requirement from the code and needs to be communicated to policy makers so that they can make an educated decision.

 A special thanks to David Bruell of the Washington Surverying and Rating Bureau (WSRB) for his contribution to the information in this blog.

Maria Figueroa

NH State Code Review Board Votes to Adopt Home Fire Sprinkler Requirements

On December 11th the New Hampshire State Code Review Board voted to adopt the International Residential Code - 2009 edition including automatic fire sprinkler systems in one- and two- family dwellings effective April 1st, 2012.  With this action NH becomes the second state to adopt the requirements, albeit, with a delayed implementation date.

 

Tim Travers, NFSA Regional Manager informs that the N.H. Home Builders Association vehemently opposed the adoption while there was widespread support from the NH Association of Fire Chiefs, the Board of Architects, Board of Engineers, NH Building Officials Association, Board for the Licensing and Regulations of Plumbers, and the NH Plumbing & Mechanical Contractors Association.

 

According to Travers: 'the adoption is but one step in the process as several pieces of legislation have been filed for 2010 to prohibit the state building code, or any local amendment, from including a mandatory fire sprinkler system. This will severely impact "home rule", which is sacred in NH and the NH fire service has vowed to prevent its passage.'

 

 

Pennsylvania First State to Adopt One- and Two-family Fire Sprinkler Requirement

On December 10^th, the Pennsylvania Independent Regulatory Review Commission (IRRC) unanimously approved No. 2804 Department of Labor & Industry #12-89: Uniform Construction Code, requiring fire sprinklers in one- and two-family homes in 2011.

With this action, Pennsylvania becomes the first state to adopt, withtout amendments, the mandate of fire sprinklers in all residential dwellings, including one- and two-family homes.

John Waters and Tim Knisely, co-chairs of the Pennsylvania Residential Fire Sprinkler Coalition are to be commended for their passion and dedication. Their position paper truly drove home the message and is to be emulated. Many other people worked tiredlessly to make this a reality. They were extremely organized and active in their efforts. Future generations will be protected against the ravages of fire in their homes. They should stand proud of their accomplishment. Thank you.

 

In this picture: John Waters, Co-chair Pennsylvania Residential Sprinkler Coalition

 

Maria Figueroa