HOME FIRE SPRINKLERS

            Good day to all.  It is time once again for some discussion about fire safety. 

In the not so distant past, Grand Traverse County adopted an ordinance.  This ordinance dealt with a fire safety code.  This fire safety code was created to keep the public safe from injury and, specifically, fire in public gathering places.  The code is then adopted or enacted in any municipality that chooses to do so. The type of place dictates the portion of the code that has to be followed.  In fact, depending upon a myriad of circumstances, there are several portions of the code that may apply or may not apply. 

            The first step in the process is to determine what type of place you have.  I say place so it is easy to understand but the technical term is occupancy.  If your occupancy, or place, has only so many square feet, you can fit only so many people in it.  If you store bottles of water, your fire concerns go way down but if you store bottles of methyl-ethyl-bad-stuff, your concerns are off the scale. 

            Once you have determined what your occupancy is, then you move on to several different aspects, the likes of which I am not going to try to explain.  It is far too expansive and I am far too ill-informed to do it justice.  However, there is one aspect about this code that just makes so much sense, I know I can do it justice.  Fire sprinklers. 

            When I was just a green, probationary fire fighter, I thought that fire sprinklers would mean the end of fire fighters.  They put out fires so we don’t have to.  I admit to some of this same mentality when I started the public education job, “am I going to eliminate fire and put people out of a job?” I recalled that human error and mechanical failure will always give fire fighters fire to fight.  I soon realized that fire sprinklers are designed to save LIVES, not property.  The prevailing attitude from the business world is that they are designed to save property so they just buy more insurance and ignore the true meaning of sprinklers.  Sprinklers are, in reality, only designed to control a fire and enable people to exit a building faster and safer by keeping the smoke and toxic gases from building to extremes.  They keep the fire in check until we get there with the big, portable sprinklers -- the super-huge garden hoses.  Statistics show that the invention of sprinklers was the turning point in fire safety.  In this county alone, fire in commercial occupancies has steadily declined since the adoption of the code.     

            So why am I talking about fire sprinklers and commercial buildings to readers of this publication who are probably home owners and have given up owning businesses?  Not just because you all visit places like this every day, not just because I have something to say, and not just because I can.  I am relating the success of commercial fire sprinklers to the possibility that they can be just as successful in residential properties as well.

            There are as many arguments for or against residential fire sprinklers as there are in any debate.  It really has everything to do with priorities.  What you think is important may not be what I think is important.  Some people were enraged about the rainbow stickers and others didn’t even care.  Priorities.  Business owners care about their bottom line, so they may turn the heat down to save money.  Consumers care about their comfort and may not like the heat turned down.  Priorities.  Each has a valid argument for their beliefs.  Each makes some sense.  But this isn’t the kind of difference of opinion that I am getting at.  No one will lose anything meaningful if the heat is up or down.  In my mind, there should be no arguing life safety.  It should be automatic that we all give life safety the utmost priority.  And one way to do that is to have fire sprinklers in every building in the world. 

            The drive to install residential fire sprinklers, I will admit, does come from those that will profit from the sale and installation.  It just makes so much sense, I will climb aboard the wagon and face the accusers that say I am in bed with the sprinkler manufacturers.  Because you wear shoes of a certain brand or style doesn’t mean you agree 100% with what that company stands for.  You just like the shoes.  For instance, I do not agree with the manner in which anyone is going about raising awareness of the benefits of sprinklers.  The legislature is involved so it may appear that force is being used.  The sprinkler manufacturers are involved so it may appear that financial profit is the reason.  Associations and coalitions are involved so it appears that lobbying is involved.  Now, lobbying scares me.  If someone has the right connections, they have the popular sway of the numbers.  It may even appear as if I am part of a lobby.  I may bend the meaning here, but I think that lobbying is a kind of bartering process.  And I am not bartering life safety, so I am not a part of any lobby trying to make personal gain.  Remember that phrase, personal gain.  I will mention it later. 

            What really needs to happen is this.  Prospective home buyers of either existing or new homes should have knowledge of all the options they have available and the benefits and risks of such.  The construction industry should be on board in endorsing sprinklers but they aren’t.  The insurance companies should be on board but they aren’t.  The very people who buy homes should be on board but they often aren’t.  The legislature is but that really doesn’t appear appropriate because they are not directly benefited by the sprinklers, only the perks of saying they support something to get something else.  The fire department is on board but we are sleeping with the sprinkler manufacturers, remember?  I will also admit that we are not on board with both feet either.  We also need to increase our endorsement.  This may be a little inappropriate, but dead children would probably love to tell you about the benefits of fire sprinklers.  Think about it. 

            The construction industry and the public are really where the efforts should be spent promoting residential fire sprinklers.  These are the meat and potatoes of the residential industry.  The contractors really have no risk in offering sprinklers.  People should look at the big picture, do their homework and get references, check the builders’ past accomplishments and failures, and check their credit history.  Then both parties know it is the builders’ work and ethics, and  not what they offer, that gets or loses them customers.  They can get rid of the notion that fire sprinklers scare away potential customers.  The public is definitely the most difficult to reach.  For so long, sprinklers have been absent in the minds of the public and perception is very hard to change.  It is a lot like the 70 year old couple with the “it won’t happen to me, it hasn’t in 70 years” attitude about fire that makes change difficult.

The statistics say that sprinklers are about 1% to 3% of the cost of a new home.  On a $100,000 home, that means about $1000.00 to $3000.00.  Not too much.  And if I were spending big bucks for a home, I would probably have big things, like my family, to put in that home and I would want some protection from danger to those things.  Water damage caused by sprinklers is less than damage caused by flames and easier to remedy.  The vast number of options available concerning sprinkler systems is very conducive to having them.  They will fit anywhere, look great anywhere, and work anywhere.  You can use steel pipe or plastic pipe.  You can possibly use your existing well system or, if building a new home, install a larger well to handle the system.  You can even go so far as to have a fire rated pump and tank system.  Each system is engineered specifically for the dwelling they are going in, in other words, no packages that fit several home styles.  The right one is designed and installed. 

I mentioned personal gain earlier.  Personal gain is important.  It is what seriously drives some people.  I do not discount personal gain.  I, myself, succumb to it quite often.  All I have to do is analyze my career to see this.  I do, however, discount it when it costs others immensely.  The “stepping on the little guys on the way up the ladder” analogy comes to mind when I think of how I discount personal gain.  It should matter who you affect on your way anywhere.  And on our way through life, we should forget personal gain, profits, status, and comfort to keep kids as safe as we can.  Home fire sprinklers CAN do this. 

Ok, now I have to admit to the little fib I told earlier.  I said I am not a part of any lobby trying to make personal gain.  I am, though.  I am promoting home fire sprinklers for personal gain.  I am sorry.  I am a part of my own little lobby trying to get you and others to install sprinkler heads in your homes.  I will gain the one, most important thing; peace of mind.  I will never have to go into a fire and look for a child again.  And I will never have to face finding one either. 

            I challenge anyone reading this to become educated about residential fire sprinklers and their benefits and help to sway the public opinion about them.  I am available to you for any questions, comments, or opinions you may want to share.   231-922-2077 or 897 Parsons Rd. Traverse City, MI 49686

Thank you.  Look for spring and summer fire safety tips very soon.

Jim Carroll

Fire Prevention Education Officer

Grand Traverse Fire Department

0304