NFPA Journal - October 2016 Home Fire Sprinkler Special Issue - 18

SPECIAL ISSUE
HOME FIRE SPRINKLERS

Sprinklers and the Home Fire Problem

The
Final
Frontier
By Fred Durso, Jr.

For decades, NFPA has promoted fire sprinklers as
the solution to North America's home fire problem,
just as they have protected other settings for more
than a century. Despite the efforts of advocates
and code requirements supporting the cause,
the question persists: How can this live-saving
technology make it into all new homes?
on Coleman can tell you the instant
he became a believer in home fire
sprinklers.
It was the early 1970s, and Coleman was a battalion chief with the Costa Mesa,
California, Fire Department. Responding to
a call, he arrived at the scene of an already
contained home fire and approached his
weary-looking captain, Ray Gallagher, in the
driveway. A seasoned veteran firefighter, Gallagher was typically guarded with his emotions,
but now he was crying. Coleman entered the
home and saw what had provoked Gallagher's
reaction: the body of a 13-year-old girl, lodged

NFPA JOURNAL OCTOBER 2016

between a wall and a couch inside her bedroom.
Her attempts to escape the fire had led her there,
where she died. Gallagher had a daughter about
the same age.
Coleman was immediately reminded of
another incident the week before, when he had
responded to a fire at a yacht factory. Sprinklers
had controlled the fire, the fire department
squeegeed the floors, and the factory resumed
business that day.
"Not a single, solitary thing was lost in that
building," says Coleman, a former state fire
marshal for California who now consults for a
handful of fire protection firms. "How is it that
we can save a damn fiberglass boat, but we can't
save a 13-year-old child? That was the galvanizing moment when I became a really strong fire
sprinkler advocate."
More than four decades later, Coleman and
today's top safety experts cannot grasp why
these kinds of events remain common today.
Businesses, restaurants, hotels, concert venues-
most of these settings have embraced the power
of sprinkler protection for decades. Fire sprinklers in new homes, advocates say, should be a
non-issue, since homes are where today's biggest
fire problem occurs-close to 3,000 annual
fire deaths, or 80 percent of all U.S. fire deaths,
happen in homes. In 2015 alone, NFPA reported
more than 365,000 home fires resulting in $7
billion in property loss. Research also confirms
that today's homes are burning faster than ever
due to open-concept designs, engineered building materials, and upholstered furniture that has
been likened to "foam gasoline."
As dire as the home fire problem is, the solution exists. Since 2009, all U.S. model building
codes have included the requirement-not
the option-to sprinkler new homes, steps
considered by safety advocates as historic
advancements in improving home fire safety.
If fire sprinklers are the answer, why hasn't this
life-saving technology been fully embraced?
"Quite frankly, we are outgunned and outspent
by the homebuilding industry when it comes to
influencing policy makers," says Tim Travers, a
regional sprinkler specialist for NFPA.
The housing industry tends to balk at fire
sprinkler requirements, basing its opposition on

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - October 2016 Home Fire Sprinkler Special Issue