‘The serious losses in life and property resulting annually from fires cause me deep concern. I am sure that such unnecessary waste can be reduced. The substantial progress made in the science of fire prevention and fire protection in this country during the past 40 years convinces me that the means are available for limiting this unnecessary destruction.”

Though President Harry S. Truman made this observation before the President's Conference on Fire Prevention 60 years ago, the quote holds true today. While the technological advances in fire prevention and protection have made great and far-reaching advances during that time, our nation's fire problem still exists, as thousands of lives and billions of dollars are lost to fire every year.

For more than 100 years, there has been an answer to this fire death and property damage dilemma. As stated in the 2003 NFPA report, U.S. Experience with Fire Sprinklers: “Automatic sprinklers are highly effective elements of total system designs for fire protection in buildings. When sprinklers are present, the chances of dying in a fire and the average property loss per fire are both cut by one-half to two-thirds, compared to fires where sprinklers are not present.”

As the local code enforcement official moves down the road of adopting local fire sprinkler ordinances for new construction and retrofit, the path gets bumpy and is filled with barriers. Code officials need access to factual information on the true economic costs, the offsetting reduction in insurance costs, and the true economic impact of fire sprinkler mandates on local economic conditions.

Arm yourself

The cost of fire sprinklers and the effects of fire sprinkler mandates on local economic conditions often are grossly misrepresented. For example, at an assembly committee meeting in Wisconsin on a student housing fire sprinkler retrofit law, fraternity representative testified that the costs to retrofit would be more than $8 per square foot; however, the fraternity house next door was retrofitted for under $2.50 per square foot.

What do fire chiefs need to overcome these hurdles? The National Fire Sprinkler Association developed a team to assist local code officials in the adoption of fire sprinkler ordinances. The team includes experienced code officials covering 14 regions across the nation and public fire protection experts with experience in adopting fire sprinkler laws. The regional operations team is structured to provide points of contact close to major-population areas of the United States. Local contacts can be found at www.nfsa.org, under “Regional News.” Contact information for the public fire protection team also is available from this Web site by clicking on “Departments,” then “Public Fire Protection.”

NFSA has established a free community technical assistance request/response protocol that functions as a guide through the ordinance adoption process, and a startup kit further aids the process. The kit contains:

• Planning guides.
• Support documentation.
• Water Purveyor Guide, which identifies residential sprinkler connection options.
• Residential Fire Sprinklers … A Step by Step Approach for Communities, designed for municipalities approaching residential ordinance programs.
• Look Up For Safety CD-ROM, which shows the success and importance of sprinklers.
• Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition's “Built for Life” kit, which contains detailed information on how a residential fire sprinkler system is designed and installed, how trade-ups can reduce construction costs while providing higher-value homes to builders' customers, and how fire sprinklers are an economical way to increase the marketability of new homes and enhance a builders' reputation for quality construction.
• Dominic's Story CD-ROM and supporting documents for student-housing ordinances, if needed.

These materials help identify stakeholders, barriers in the ordinance adoption process, procedures and media events that assist in the fire sprinkler ordinance adoption effort. The protocol process includes assistance from the regional operations and public fire protection staff, including their expert testimony at hearings and workshops.

Resources also can be found at the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition Web site, www.homefiresprinkler.org, which has sections for the homeowner, the homebuilder and the fire service code official. The “Fire Service” section includes a study based on 15 years of fire-loss data from Scottsdale, Ariz., that shows the average property loss for residential homes with fire sprinkler systems was $2,166 compared to a $45,019 average loss for homes without fire sprinklers.

Another resource is Fire Team USA, a special day-and-a-half informational/training conference on fire protection. Funded by the Department of Homeland Security's fire prevention grants program, Fire Team USA's targets code enforcement, water utilities and elected officials — essentially all of a government's stakeholders in fire sprinkler ordinance adoption process. (See “Fire Team USA Targets Training,” below.)

Manage the opposition

Responses to issues vary between communities, as different forces opposing fire sprinklers enter the process. For example, economic arguments are different for new construction than for retrofit, and community growth management issues require consideration of long-range infrastructure needs and costs.

Take the argument that fire sprinkler systems minimize water distribution costs as water flow demand is lower for sprinkler-protected property than for those structures not protected with fire sprinklers. Within that discussion, one might need to ask why a community should install 12-inch water mains when 8-inch mains are all that would be required for fire sprinkler-protected property. Installation and annual maintenance costs on the 8-inch system are far less than a 12-inch system. Then there are firefighter workers' compensation cost reductions, fire operation reductions, significant water consumption differences, community and government insurance savings, and lower infrastructure costs.

All of these points place fire sprinklers in a favorable economic light. Show that there's no valid reason to oppose fire sprinkler ordinances for new residential construction when emphasizing that the majority of fire deaths occur in the residential environment; that regardless of when the property was built, people cause fires; and that fire department response time doesn't measure favorably with fire growth rates.

Retrofit issues are different than those for new construction. In 1946, the U.S. Supreme Court opined in Queenside Hills Realty Co. v. Saxl that “in no case does the owner of a property acquire immunity against the exercise of police powers of government because he constructed it in full compliance with a building code.” It further said that government not only has the right to impose current fire safety codes, it has an obligation to do so.

The owner of a building is obligated to provide a safe environment regardless of what edition of a code is adopted and enforced within a community. When a person dies in a fire, there will be a lawsuit. The lawyers will argue that the owner of the property failed in his or her duty to provide a reasonable level of fire safety within the building, and that the Life Safety Code provisions identifying the level of care the owner is obligated to meet were violated.

Many states and local governments have responded with fire safety retrofit requirements that include fire sprinkler retrofit, and they have done so with the understanding of the liability consequences — not so much liability for the government but more for the business owner who owns a non-compliant older building. Does it really matter when a building was erected to the person trapped on the 25th floor of a high-rise building by a fire consuming the floors below?

Fire sprinkler ordinance initiatives are complicated, but the NFSA regional operations and public fire protection team are in place to assist local code officials in adoption initiatives. These resources and documentation have been developed over many years, analyzing both successful and failed sprinkler ordinance initiatives, so contact the NFSA for assistance. Fire sprinkler ordinances for new and retrofit of existing buildings are the right thing to do. Let's not wait another 100 years to overcome barriers to providing a fire-safe community.

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Buddy Dewar is the director of regional operations for the National Fire Sprinkler Association. He is the former director of Florida's State Fire Marshal's Office. Dewar's fire service career includes U.S. Army arson investigations, fire suppression chief, and former superintendent of the Florida State Fire College. Dewar received a bachelor's degree in economics and a master's degree in business.