NFPA Journal - September/October 2020 - 63

Seven people died when a refurbished World
War II-era B-17 bomber crashed and burned
at an airport in Connecticut. (NTSB via AP)

because sprinklers have been proven
to save lives across many kinds of
properties, including homes. According to NFPA's Fire Sprinkler Initiative
(firesprinklerinitiative.org), the civilian
death rate associated with home fires
is 81 percent lower in homes with fire
sprinklers than in homes without them.
Additionally, sprinklers reduce the
average property loss in home fires by
71 percent per fire, and the average firefighter injury rate is nearly 80 percent
lower when fire sprinklers are present
during fires. When home sprinklers are
present, fires are kept to the room of
origin 97 percent of the time.
When fire sprinklers and hardwired
smoke alarms are both present, the
home fire death rate drops by 90
percent. By comparison, when battery-powered smoke alarms are present
but automatic extinguishing systems
are not, the home fire death rate drops
by 18 percent.
Batteries for smoke alarms should
be replaced according to manufacturer
recommendations; conventional batteries should be replaced at least yearly.
If an alarm chirps, indicating that
the battery is low, the battery should
be replaced right away. All smoke
alarms, including hard-wired alarms
and alarms that use 10-year batteries,
should be replaced when they are 10
years old, or sooner if they do not
respond properly when tested.

Smoke alarms are only effective if
occupants leave the building when
the alarms sound. Children should be
familiar with the sound of a properly
operating smoke alarm and follow a
practiced escape plan that emphasizes
two exits from any location, as well as
a designated meeting place once they
have left the structure. Exit drills in the
home are part of many schools' curricula. Practicing the plan helps families
determine whether children and others
readily waken to the sound of a smoke
alarm if it sounds during the night;
that knowledge, along with assistance
for family members who require it,
can be factored into the escape plan.
Practicing escape plans, as well as basic
fire prevention principles, might have
prevented many of the fires and deaths
included in this report.

WHERE WE GET OUR DATA,
AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
NFPA obtains its data by first reviewing national and local news media,
including fire service publications. A
news clipping service reads all daily
US newspapers and notifies the NFPA
Applied Research Division of fatal fires.
Once an incident has been identified,
we request information from the local
fire department, or the authority having
jurisdiction and follow up as necessary.
NFPA's annual survey of US fire experience and mailings to state fire marshals

are additional data sources, although
not principal ones. We also contact federal agencies that have participated in
the investigation of such fires.
The diversity and redundancy of these
sources enable us to collect the most
complete data available on catastrophic
multiple-death fires throughout the US.
We understand that, in many cases, a fire
department cannot release information
due to ongoing litigation. In other cases,
fire departments have been unable to
determine the information we requested.
In the second quarter of 2020, when
much of the data gathering for this study
occurred, the US, along with the rest
of the world, was hit with the COVID19 pandemic. Understanding that fire
departments had their hands full with
emergencies, we did not make additional
follow-up requests and phone calls to
fire departments, and as a result, less
detailed information was available for
the 2019 study.
NFPA wishes to thank the US fire
service and the medical examiners for
their contributions of data, without
which this report would not be possible. The author also thanks Nancy
Schwartz as well as the staff of the
NFPA Applied Research and Data and
Analytics Groups.
STEPHEN G. BADGER, a fire data assistant
with NFPA's Fire Analysis and Research Division,
is retired from the Quincy, Massachusetts, Fire
Department.

N F PA . O R G / J O U R N A L * NFPA JOURNAL

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NFPA Journal - September/October 2020

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