NFPA's Fire Sprinkler Initiative

Call for award nominations: “Bringing Safety Home” Award

The nonprofit Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition (HFSC),and NFPA’s Fire Sprinkler Initiative have teamed up with the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC) to award a fire chief for their outstanding local efforts to increase the installation of residential fire sprinkler systems. The “Bringing Safety Home” award will recognize a fire chief who uses HFSC’s educational materials and NFPA’s  FireSprinklerInitiative.org resources as a key part of a program to educate and ensure that decision-makers have information to upgrade or pass new residential fire sprinkler legislation at the local level.

The award will be presented by IAFC’s Fire and Life Safety Section at the 2011 Fire Rescue International in Atlanta.  Last year, Chief Timothy Solobay of Cannonsburg (PA) Volunteer Fire Department was the first recipient of the “Bringing Safety Home” award.  He was recognized for the role he played to educate decision-makers in his area and state. As a state representative, Chief Solbay’s efforts contributed to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to adopt the 2009 International Residential Code requiring fire sprinkler systems in all townhomes and new one- and two-family homes.

Download a nomination form. Applications are due July 29.

Chief Timothy Solobay of the Cannonsburg (PA) Volunteer Fire Department, received the first “Bringing Safety Home” award in 2010. From left: Chief Joe Pierce, president of the IAFC Fire and Life Safety Section, NFPA’s Gary Keith, Chief Solobay, and HFSC’s Peg Paul. 

- Karen Wallingford

The added benefits of home fire sprinklers

Media coverage of a recent townhouse fire on Carlton Drive in New Hanover County, NC underscores the reduction of property damage by fire sprinklers.

Although home fire sprinkler systems are designed for life safety, reduced property damage is an added benefit.

The story quotes Assistant Wilmington Fire Chief Frank Blackley; "A sprinkler system in an apartment fire Tuesday kept damages to $1,500, while the fire on Carlton Drive totaled at least $200,000." Property damage was reduced by 75% in the sprinkered residential occupancy. There is no other fire safety technology or program that produces as great a reduction in property loss per fire as fire sprinklers; reducing property loss by 71%.*

Fire sprinklers save lives and property and also protect the environment. Visit the research/reports and resources section of our website to obtain additional information and to assist advocacy efforts as jurisdictions consider the adoption of model codes requiring fire sprinkler in new home construction.

 

Maria Figueroa

 

 *US Experience with Sprinklers (Table 4-3, pg. 38)  

NFPA Research Foundation project compares fire flow water consumption

The Fire Protection Research Foundation, an affiliate of NFPA, is working on a project to assess the community impacts of fire flow water consumption in sprinklered and unsprinklered buildings. The objective is to evaluate the prevalence and structure of fire flow fees against the community impact/water usage at both types of properties. Download the project summary.

- Karen Wallingford

Download a free copy of NFPA's new report on automatic fire sprinklers

NFPA has released a new 92-page report that analyzes fires in the United States that involve automatic fire sprinklers. The report, by NFPA’s John R. Hall, Jr., includes statistics on how often sprinklers are reported in fires, by property use, and their estimated impact in reducing the average loss of life and property per fire.

If you follow NFPA, you know that we are advocates for the installation of home fire sprinklers (read more on our Fire Sprinkler Initiative website), and here’s why: fire sprinklers save lives. As outlined in our new sprinkler report, the fire death rate per 1,000 reported home fires was lower by 83% and property damage lower by 71% when wet pipe sprinklers were present versus when no automatic extinguishing equipment was present. Download your free copy of NFPA's sprinkler report.

Wisconsin fire inspector Guy Santelli and his wife are all too familiar with the tragic potential of fires in unsprinklered homes. For them, installing a sprinkler system in their new home was an easy choice: "we put fire sprinkler systems in our new home to protect our children. We want to protect our family the best we can." Watch Mr. Santelli explain his decision to install home fire sprinklers.

-Ben Evarts
NFPA Research Analyst

Home improvement TV show host publicly supports the requirement for sprinkler installation

In a recent interview on radio talk show Life, love & health, home improvement television show host Ron Hazleton, proclaimed residential sprinklers as being “the only fire prevention technology that will actually put a fire out.” 

Home Improvement TV Show host Ron Hazelton, at a side-by-side sprinkler demonstration

As Hazelton puts it, sprinklers put out or contain a fire until the fire department gets there, and 90% of the time just one sprinkler head is activated. Debunking common myths, Hazelton went on to define sprinklers as being no more likely to malfunction than any other part of the plumbing in the home. Additionally, a sprinkler head puts out far, far less water than a fireman’s hose and are only activated by heat. According to Hazelton, codes are actually the distilled result many experiences, sadly often negative. As an advocate for the requirements for residential fire sprinklers, he encourages people to bring their stories of renovation to their community leaders so they too can advocate and use these success stories to persuade others to install fire sprinklers in their homes.

- Karen Wallingford