Would a fire chief with 36 years of fire service experience, 25 of them as a fire marshal, oppose the new 2009 ICC code for residential sprinklers in his community? According to Tennessean.com, Spring Hill (Tenn.) Chief Jim Swindle is asking city leaders to rethink a proposal that would require sprinklers in newly built homes, but adds that he supports sprinklers in general.

"I whole-heartedly support sprinklers. Always have and always will," he said. "At no time did I say I didn't support sprinklers."

Swindle supports the 2006 code, but would not recommend the most recent code update, deferring to the state. He said he contacted Asst. State Commissioner Jim Pillow and was told that the state of state was going to adopt the 2006 codes and leave it up to the local jurisdictions to decide on the 2009 code. Consequently, Swindle did not recommend the new residential sprinkler code to his mayor and board of aldermen, in order to be "in the same song book" with the state.

"By Spring Hill not being an exempt city we have a tremendous amount of construction jobs going on that the state has to review," Swindle said. "If we are in the 2009 and the state is in the 2006 code, what code do you think the state will enforce? Spring Hill would not have any authority, as the contractors would just go right over our head."

However, the state has not yet voted on whether to adopt the 2009 ICC sprinkler codes, according to Pillow.

"It has not been determined," Pillow said. "That will be done by rule-making within the next three to six months."

Tennessee is the only state that has a statute that protects the right of a locality to adopt its own sprinkler ordinance. There are 15 states that can pre-empt, but according to Pillow, "Tennessee is the only state that they will not be pre-empted."

Over my entire career, I have never not supported sprinklers," Swindle said. "But I have always stayed in direct correlation with the state fire marshal's office. Neither the construction community nor the political community had anything to do with this decision. It was a decision based on comments from the state."

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