NFPA's Fire Sprinkler Initiative

New Report: Incentives for the Use of Residential Fire Sprinklers Systems

The Fire Protection Research Foundation has released a new report identifying the nature and impact of incentives “as a mechanism to expand the installation of fire sprinkler systems in homes.” The research “identified, characterized, and estimated the approximate value of sprinkler system incentives found in communities across the U.S.”

The study concluded that “when comparing the estimated value of incentives to a typical cost of a fire sprinkler system for a new single-family home” homebuilders benefited the most, with an average of $1,949, “which a community might reasonably offer” to offset about one-third of the system cost. 

According to the report, in addition to these direct cost savings “it is also possible that builders would derive an indirect benefit from other categories of incentives which could further offset the cost of sprinklers." For example, a builder may also benefit financially from developer incentives passed down to the builder, or homeowner incentives used as a marketing tool to help sell the home. However, this estimation of indirect benefits is beyond the scope of the study and was not included in the $1,949 figure or the 33% cost offset.

Typical homeowner incentives are annually recurring and amount to $145. Developer oriented incentives amount to $1,271, which does not include the value of reduced cul-de-sac widths (identified in the study as typically amounting to $10,752 per cul-de-sac), or increased dead-end street length.

This latest study demonstrates what we have known all along; incentives work to increase the cost/benefit value of home fire sprinkler systems. Communities should strive to work towards these incentives and create policy that will make developers and builders pass on these cost savings to home buyers, reducing the financial impact to homeowners that is so often cited by home fire sprinkler opponents. 

Click here to read the entire report

Maria Figueroa

 

Jo Brinkley-Chaudoir lost her fire department partner in a home fire.

It has been four years, but the terrifying memories of August 13, 2006, are still clear to Jo Brinkley-Chaudoir. Jo was working as a firefighter/paramedic for the Green Bay Fire Department, when a call came into the station about a house fire. Her team was among the first to respond, and by the looks of the outside, the fire didn’t seem too bad.

“When we got there, we just saw a little wisp of gray smoke coming out the back of the house. We thought it was just a barbeque grill or something,” Jo recalls.

Jo and her 13-year partner in the department, Arnie Wolff, were instructed to enter the home to search for residents. As they entered, the home was filled with static smoke. Arnie was first in and told Jo which direction to go. They dropped to their knees and crawled only a few feet when the floor collapsed into a basement engulfed in flames.

Watch Jo's story.

NFPA’s Faces of Fire campaign is a tool to help people and groups across the country promote the use of automatic fire sprinklers in one- and two-family homes. By containing fires before they spread, home fire sprinklers protect lives and property. The personal stories told through the Faces of Fire campaign will show the experiences of those who escaped or lost loved ones in home fires and those whose lives and property were protected by home fire sprinklers.

- Mike Hazell

Highlighting fire sprinkler saves – Longview, WA apartment fire

“A candle left burning in a bathroom set a Longview apartment building ablaze Friday night, but a sprinkler system quickly doused the fire before it could cause much damage, according to the Longview Fire Department.” This was the first sentence in a TDN.com online article covering a fire in an apartment building fitted with fire sprinklers.

Although this fire did not occur in a single family home, highlighting fire sprinkler saves in any residential environment may help to spread the word about the importance of the home fire sprinkler requirement in all new homes.

The article states, “no one was injured in the blaze”; highlighting the benefits of fire sprinklers in protecting occupants against death and injury from fire.  Additionally, the article states that smoke and water damage “amounted to a loss of about $5,000.” Most importantly, “the occupants were able to continue living in the apartment.”

Kudos to Battalion Chief Brian Smith who issued a statement that ‘the building's occupants "may owe their lives to the landlord's investment in sprinklers.”

Making sure that the right “soundbite” is provided to reporters, either on the scene or in a press release after the fact, is extremely important. The article is quite short but powerful. 

Everyone who may be called to serve as PIO on the scene of a fire must be prepared to answer media questions touting the role that fire sprinklers play in protecting life and property. Way to go Chief Smith and the Longview Fire Department!

Maria Figueroa

Fire chief recounts tale of firefighter burned on duty, forced to retire

One of Chief W. Keith Brower's firefighters, from the Loudoun County (VA) fire department, was severely burned when a fireball erupted on the first floor of a home fire. The fire trapped four of Chief Brower's firefighters upstairs. All four escaped, but the firefighter who was burned has retired from the force. "He's partially incapacitated," says the Chief. "He can't do the job he loves."

Watch Chief Brower's story.

NFPA’s Faces of Fire campaign is a tool to help people and groups across the country promote the use of automatic fire sprinklers in one- and two-family homes. By containing fires before they spread, home fire sprinklers protect lives and property. The personal stories told through the Faces of Fire campaign will show the experiences of those who escaped or lost loved ones in home fires and those whose lives and property were protected by home fire sprinklers.

- Mike Hazell

New NFPA campaign puts a face on the lifesaving impact of home sprinklers

 
Personal stories of those who have been affected by fires in the home - like Princella Lee-Bridges of Greenville, SC - are part a new NFPA campaign to promote the required installation of fire sprinklers in new one- and two-family homes. The campaign, called "Faces of Fire", was unveiled this morning at a conference in Boston that drew fire and building officials from around the country.

In March 1992, Princella Lee-Bridges was busy with the evening’s chores of making dinner and helping her daughter with homework when her son ran into the room to tell her the home’s heating unit was on fire. Princella went for the fire extinguisher, but quickly realized that it was time to get her family out of the burning house. Using their escape plan, the family sought safety outside.

“My son and my dad went out, and so did I. And I just assumed that my daughter went with us,” Princella says. “That’s not what happened.”

When Princella, an operating room nurse and Desert Storm veteran, didn’t see her daughter outside, she panicked. She shouted to nearby firefighters that her daughter was still inside, then ran back into the burning home to rescue her on her own. In the meantime, firefighters had found her daughter and had begun treating her for smoke inhalation. The injuries that Princella suffered were much more serious. With burns on 49 percent of her body, Princella remained in a coma for two months.

Princella's story - along with the personal stories of other home fire survivors, family members of victims, first responders and homeowners whose property has been protected by fire sprinklers, are all being featured in the Faces of Fire campaign. Through video interviews, photographs and written profiles available online, Faces of Fire is a resource for local advocates and fire personnel, putting personal stories front and center during consideration of fire sprinkler mandates.

See more Faces of Fire stories and learn how to become a fire sprinkler advocate in your community.

- Mike Hazell

New report: "U.S. Experience with Sprinklers and Other Fire Extinguishing Equipment"

This new report by NFPA's John R. Hall, Jr. includes statistics on how often sprinklers (or other automatic extinguishing systems) are reported in fires, by property use, and their estimated impact in reducing the average loss of life and property per fire. The report also includes statistics on performance, usage and reliability of sprinklers and other automatic extinguishing systems, as well as leading reasons when system fail to operate, or operate but are ineffective.

Urgent Call to PA Home Fire Sprinkler Advocates.

The PA Fire Sprinkler Coalition has issued an urgent call to all advocates, families, and friends living in PA to contact members of the House asking them to keep the home fire sprinkler requirement intact.

The PA Senate passed amended HB1196 just prior to the end of its session. If passed by the House, this bill places a moratorium on the home fire sprinkler requirement for one year. The PA homebuilders have promised to use this delay to do away with the requirement altogether.The House will come back for a two-day lame duck session on November 7th & 8th to consider the bill.

The PA home builders have failed in every other proper forum to kill the requirement. Unable to succeed at the state building code council, which passed the requirement, they filed an injunction which was dismissed by the court. The issue has been covered here in a previous post. Now they turn to the legislature, where political influence may be tilted more in their favor.

For more information contact Tim Knisely, Co-Chair of the PA Fire Sprinkler Coalition at tknisely@centreregioncode.org

Maria Figueroa

Read the October issue of the Fire Sprinkler Initiative Newsletter

The October 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 showcase two fire departments who are using side-by-side burns to demonstrate the power of home fire sprinklers. We also feature a new NFPA report on "U.S. Experience with Sprinklers and Other Fire Extinguishing Equipment".

- Mike Hazell

PA Building Code and Sprinklers Still Under Attack by PA Builders

PA builders are asking legislators to delay the implementation of the home fire sprinkler provision. According to the PA Residential Fire Sprinkler Coalition's Co-Chair Tim Knisely; ‘Once again the “Court Approved” code adoption process in PA is under assault by the PA Builders Association'.

The Builders Associaton of Metropolitan Pittsburgh (BAMP) sent out an e-mail to “all members and friends concerned with the cost of housing” asking recipients to contact legislators to voice opposition against the home fire sprinkler requirement. BAMP continues to use the cost factor to mislead policy makers and the public; as found in an article published by the Pittsburg-Post Gazette online edition. PA Builders claim that fire sprinklers will add $10,000 to the cost of a new home; while the national average price is $1.61 sq. ft. as found in the Fire Protection Research Foundation’s  Home Fire Sprinkler Cost Assessment research report.

The e-mail sent by BAMP also claims that “sprinklers and smoke alarms protect lives about equally”. PA builders also continue to use the 99.45% survivability by smoke alarms statistic out of context despite a recent letter sent to the Executive Director of the PA Builders Association by NFPA President Jim Shannon asking “that you clarify or omit the information contained in the PBA website regarding the effectiveness of smoke alarms”. The letter also reiterates the statistical fact that smoke alarms reduce the risk of death from fire in the home by 50%, while the risk is reduced by about 80% when sprinklers are present.

In a tersely worded letter to legislators, Donald H. Konkle, Executive Director of the PA Fire & Emergency Services Institute asks that the approved building code not be tampered with. Kinkle adds; “time and time again, we have pointed out that the Pennsylvania Builders are playing fast and loose with the facts… If we allow a delay in the implementation of sprinklers we are saying that builders’ profits are more important that citizens’ lives! The firefighters of Pennsylvania will not stand for any further delays or obfuscations by the Builders”.

It is evident that the opposition will not give up in PA, or elsewhere, for that matter. The home fire sprinkler provision included in all model codes will continue to come under constant attack. It is important for advocates to unite and remain vigilant, and to push back any effort by the opposition to remove the requirement .

Maria Figueroa