I have been told that a house has three fates: fall down, tear down or burn down. I once lived in one of the first American cities with the tear-down trend. Builders would purchase homes upward of $300,000, tear them down and build large, easement-to-easement homes worth millions.

Block after block of that once-charming old town now is packed tightly with mega-mansions filled with hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of terrazzo flooring and woodwork, but not with fire sprinklers to protect them. Why? Residents voted down the code, many of them still believing that if one sprinkler head goes off, all the sprinkler heads will discharge and flood the house.

In March, Ronny Coleman wrote, “The Time Has Come to Win the Sprinkler Battle.” Coleman has fought for codes to require residential sprinkler systems for 35 years. Why?

While serving as a battalion chief in Costa Mesa, Calif., Coleman responded to a chemical fire at a boat manufacturer. During his approach, he could see a swirling column of black smoke. Coleman and his crew watched as the smoke turned white. Why? The fire had set off the fire sprinklers, which extinguished the fire before the first apparatus arrived on scene. “We squeegeed the floor, and Columbia Yachts was back in business,” Coleman said.

A few months later, Coleman responded to a 3 a.m structure fire. His distraught captain told him there was a fatality. Inside the building, Coleman found four firefighters staring at claw marks on the wall and the body of a 13-year-old girl, almost disemboweled. Why? She collapsed between the couch and the door and died from smoke inhalation. When firefighters tried to enter the door, they almost cut her in half.

Coleman started thinking about saving yachts versus saving a 13-year-old girl. “Why aren't we putting sprinklers in apartment houses?” he started asking anyone who would listen. Shortly thereafter, in 1968, Coleman fought with a hotel chain to install fire sprinklers in its new 3-story hotel in Costa Mesa.

When Coleman became fire chief of rapidly growing San Clemente, Calif., the city manager asked him how the city could keep the impact on fire as low as possible. Coleman's answer was fire sprinklers. San Clemente passed an ordinance requiring fire sprinklers in all dwelling occupancies in 1976, even before residential sprinkler heads were available.

“Today, the city of San Clemente is the most widely protected city with sprinkler systems,” Coleman said. “The people that have the most to gain are the local government [officials].”

Coleman now serves as president of the International Residential Code Fire Sprinkler Coalition's board of directors. Formed in 2007, the not-for-profit coalition promotes the health, safety and welfare of the public and emergency responders by supporting the installation of fire sprinklers in residential occupancies.

Fire-safety advocates are optimistic that the IRC will be changed at the International Code Council meeting in Minneapolis, Sept. 20-21, to require fire sprinklers in new one-and two-family dwellings and townhouses. The battle then will move to the states and eventually to local governments. But however long it takes, the job of educating your community to the value of residential sprinklers should begin today.

Why would someone fight against a safety feature that could save a life? Besides the myth of floods, many residents believe the costs of residential sprinkler systems are too steep. But Coleman said the costs of residential sprinklers have decreased significantly and estimates they average $1 to $1.25 per square foot for a residential sprinkler system in new construction. “What drives down costs?” he asked. “Mass consumption.”

But it's not just the public we need to educate. Some fire service agencies are fighting mandatory sprinklers in their response areas. Why? With fire calls already down, are they afraid there will be no more fires to fight? Sprinkler systems save property, but more importantly they save lives — including firefighters' lives.

Why won't you fight for residential sprinklers? Is that your final answer?