NFPA Journal - Fall 2023 - 61

measures could be considered as well. From my
experience, gas grills should be required to operate
as the manufacturer intended, including all electronic
ignition devices; short-term renters should
never have to use a match or lighter stick to ignite
a gas grill. Gas grills should be secured in a safe
location for operation that meets the requirements
of NFPA 1, subsection 10.11.7, including the use of
locking cables (such as bike locks or semi-permanent
fasteners) to prevent short-term rental guests from
moving a grill to a location where it is no longer safe
to operate. Gas grills should be inspected annually
for leaks and safe operation by a qualified technician,
and fire extinguishers should be located, per
NFPA requirements, within 30 feet of all grills, unobstructed,
in a bracket, and near a path of exit.
A commercial approach to short-term rental safety
would also apply to fire extinguishers and their
placement. NFPA 10, Standard for Portable Fire Extinguishers,
defines where fire extinguishers should be
placed in a short-term rental-but because that rental
is most likely in a single-family home, it is usually not
required to include fire extinguishers. Additionally, the
placement of fire extinguishers in short-term rentals
should be considered differently than in commercial
settings. It is currently okay for a fire extinguisher to
be placed in a bracket under a sink or in a closet in a
kitchen, but this can present problems.
In October 2022, in Sanford, Florida, a grease fire
erupted on a stovetop in a short-term rental. A fire
extinguisher was inside a pantry near the stove, but
accessing the extinguisher would have required the
renter to move nearer to the fire source, including
heat and smoke-a " no exit " zone away from the
path of egress. Instead, the renter tried to put out
the grease fire with water, which can superheat and
explode when used in these types of fires.
More than a third of short-term rentals in the
U.S. are in rural areas that are not quickly reached
by fire departments. As a result, fire extinguishers
are an important tool to control a fire until the fire
department can respond. Extinguishers must be
readily accessible and of a size that allows renters
to easily and safely use them, giving occupants an
exit opportunity if needed. That's why fire extinguishers
should be mounted in a bracket where they
are highly visible and in a path of egress from the
structure, and why they should be placed on each
level of the rental property near an exit point.
Alarms, capacity,
and egress
For smoke alarms, NFPA 101®
, Life Safety Code®
,
applies different requirements to hotels than to oneand
two-family dwellings and lodging or rooming
houses. Each guest room and every living area and
sleeping room within a guest suite in an existing
hotel requires at least one approved single-station
smoke alarm (29.3.4.5). Those smoke alarms don't
need to be interconnected, and they don't need a
secondary power source (29.3.4.5.1, 29.3.4.5.2). NFPA
puts a particular emphasis on utilizing manual fire
alarm boxes located at the exits to initiate the fire
alarm system or notification to the front desk, where
staff can manually initiate the fire alarm, as a way to
notify all guests that a fire requiring evacuation may
exist. There is also a strong reliance on sprinkler
systems with additional focus on rooms and suites
specifically for hearing-impaired people.
By comparison, most short-term rentals only
require smoke alarms in each sleeping room and
immediately outside each sleeping room. This leaves
a huge gap in protection. Most fires in short-term
rentals start in utility spaces or kitchens. One major
difference between hotels and short-term rentals
is that many rental owners permit renters to park
a car in an attached garage, most of which do not
include detection. In fact, many short-term rentals
have no fire alarm or automatic sprinkler system
requirements. The challenge of alerting occupants
is compounded by alcohol consumption-in a recent
survey, more than 75 percent of short-term renters
said they had consumed alcohol to the point of being
intoxicated. Many of these people would have a difficult
time hearing an alarm or evacuating.
The average three-bedroom short-term rental in
the U.S. can generate between $20,000 and $120,000
a year depending on the location. To purchase and
install the best dual-detection smoke alarms with a
10-year lifespan for a typical three-bedroom home
costs around $270. Having a professional electrician
hardwire those smoke alarms could cost as much as
$3,000; connecting them wirelessly would run about
$500. Even so, assuming the highest cost ($3,270)
and the lowest annual income ($20,000) for that
rental, the cost of purchasing and hardwiring smoke
alarms amounts to 1.6 percent of the total income
generated over the 10-year life of the alarms. While
most professional managers or agents of rental properties
encourage property owners to do this, many
NFPA .ORG/JOURNAL * NFPA JOURNAL | 61
SMITH COLLECTION/GADO/SIPA USA)(SIPA VIA AP IMAGES
http://nfpa.org/journal
NFPA Journal - Fall 2023

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - Fall 2023
