Residential Fire is a Serial Killer…the Public Can be Protected
Each year, fire kills more people in the United States than ALL natural disasters combined, a statistic that escapes widespread media attention because fire fatalities tend to occur one or two at a time.
- Thousands of people die each year in residential fires, and many more are disfigured with debilitating injuries. The victims of fire tend to be high-risk populations…the elderly, the young and the infirm, who are often unable to protect themselves when a fire occurs.
In short, home fire sprinklers have been around a long time…the requirements in national codes are not a sudden change.
The Ability of Smoke Alarms to Save Lives is Limited
- Smoke alarms are valuable life-safety devices; however, fire loss statistics bear a sobering fact. One out of every three fire fatalities occurs in a home with a WORKING smoke alarm.
- Children and older adults often fail to awaken or awaken too slowly to escape when an alarm sounds, with fatal consequences. In addition, the reliability of smoke alarms declines over time as electrical components age.
- Fire sprinklers are designed to save sleeping occupants, even if an occupant fails to respond to a smoke alarm.
Just as cars have air bags in addition to seat belts, fire sprinklers are a proven compliment to smoke alarms in a home.
Today’s Homes Burn and Collapse Faster than Older Homes
- Highly flammable furnishings and lightweight construction materials used to build today’s homes are more dangerous than those found in older homes. They burn faster and hotter, releasing highly toxic gases. Federal government studies indicate that since the 1970s, survival time in a residential fire has dropped from as much as 17 minutes to less than 3 minutes.
- Residential fire sprinklers are the only systems that can stop fires before they reach deadly proportions.
- Without sprinklers, firefighters arrive at the scene of a fire just about the time that structural failure is imminent.
Residential Fire Sprinklers are not a New Technology
- For more than two decades, national building codes have required sprinklers in new apartments, condominiums, hotels, group homes and other residential occupancies
- Residential sprinklers are already installed in hundreds of thousands of single family homes throughout the United States based on local regulations.
- In total, millions of families live in properties protected by fire sprinklers, and nearly every fire is controlled or extinguished by a single fire sprinkler.
- There have been absolutely no home fire deaths recorded in sprinkled homes….EVER !
Cost, Value and Affordability
- Although some groups would like you to believe that this issue is about maintaining housing affordability- that argument fails to pass muster. The cost to install a fire sprinkler system in South Carolina is between $2 and $3 per square foot.
- Added to the life of a mortgage, the increase in payment is very minimal.
- Fire sprinklers can actually help decrease the cost of new homes in many cases through incentives, such as reduced street width and property separations, fewer fire hydrants and smaller water mains, reduce infrastructure costs as compared to unsprinkled communities. Developers can then pass these savings on to home buyers.
- Insurance companies offer reduce premiums on individual homeowner policies for homes equipped with fire sprinklers, providing a permanent and recurring financial benefit to the home owner.
Less Water Damage Equals Less Fire Damage. - Sprinklers discharge an average of 341 gallons of water per fire vs. an average of 2,935 gallons released by firefighter hoses.
- Average fire loss in sprinkled home: $2,166 vs. $45,019 in a home without sprinklers.
NO Fire Sprinkler Maintenance
- Residential sprinkler systems are essentially maintenance free.
- Multipurpose systems are tested every time the domestic water is used.
“One at a Time Activation” Sprinkler Heads
- Heat from a fire will generally open the only the nearest sprinkler. The operation of more than one sprinkler is very unlikely in homes and they are only activated by extreme heat.
- Its water cools the hot fire gases, preventing deadly flashover.
- Sprinklers are fundamental component to the safety and wellbeing of our citizens and firefighters throughout South Carolina.
A Harris Interactive Survey of over 1,000 adults revealed that:
- 45% of homeowners said that a sprinkled home is more desirable than an non-sprinkled home,
- 69% of homeowners said that having a fire sprinkler system increases the value of a home,
- 38% of homeowners said that they would be more likely to purchase a home with fire sprinklers than without.
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