Fire-safety advocates are pushing Congress to adopt the Fire Sprinkler Incentive Act, legislation that would create economic incentives for commercial-building owners who install automatic fire sprinklers. In fact, a collation of fire-service organizations has been working on the measure for the past seven years, said Bill Webb, executive director of the Congressional Fire Services Institute (CFSI). Webb explained that the measure originally was introduced in 2003 following the Station Fire in West Warwick, R.I. The fire, caused by pyrotechnics, spread in minutes and claimed the lives of 100 concertgoers.

Shortly after the incident, CFSI representatives sat down with congressional leaders to pitch legislation that could prevent such tragedies. The representatives had a coalition of organizations behind them, including the National Fire Sprinkler Association, the American Fire Sprinkler Association, the National Fire Protection Agency, the International Association of Fire Chiefs, and others. Webb said the legislation would accelerate the deprecation of sprinklers from the current 39 years for commercial (27.5 for residential) to five years.

“Let's give an incentive to businesses that purchase buildings for installing the sprinklers,” Webb said. “If you keep the deprecation set at 39 years and 27.5, why would a building owner put in a new sprinkler system when they cannot depreciate that asset over a quicker time period?”

Each year the collation attempts to lobby for the act's passage but it has not been successful. Webb said the problem on Capitol Hill is the program's price tag: $603 million over five years, $888 million over 10 years and $1.8 billion if it became permanent.

“Congress is looking at a huge debt, and they've been coming to us and asking what types of offsets we can come up with or how we can reduce the cost of the legislation over time,” Webb said.

In addition, the legislation must be attached to a bill to pass.

“You are always looking for a vehicle to attach this to, a piece of legislation to attach it to,” Webb said. “It's tough to get anything passed that is freestanding bill. In addition, it creates more of a challenge if that legislation doesn't have the full support of committee members, so we are focusing our efforts on members of ways and means and finance committees so there is the political side of it.”

Webb said if the bill does not pass this year, the collation will regroup and lobby for its passage next year.

“We are committed to seeing this through,” he said.