Sprinklers
Residential Fire Sprinklers
Fires pose a serious risk to families. Everyone should be protected
against the possibility of death, injury, and property loss resulting
from fire in their residences. In order to be protected against serious
injury from home fire, all homes should be equipped with a total
system of safety: early warning (smoke alarms), suppression (automatic
fire sprinklers) and prompt evacuation (families should prepare and
practice emergency escape plans).
Residential fire sprinklers have proven to be
economical, reliable and the best way to protect your family and home
from the dangers of fire. Among the many advantages for home owners are
a safer home for the family, protection from the loss of their home and
irreplaceable possessions and lower insurance rates. There are many
myths about residential sprinkler systems. For information about
residential sprinkler systems check out the US Fire Administration
website or one of the websites listed on the links page.
Information below derived from NFPA (National
Fire Protection Association) sources with little or no modification.
Sprinkler Facts
- 84% of all U.S. fire deaths occur in the home.
- The risk of dying in a home fire is cut by about 80%with automatic fire sprinkler systems.
- Fire sprinklers protect a home 24 hours a day, automatically
- Home fire sprinklers can contain and even extinguish a fire before the fire department arrives on the scene.
- The average property loss per fire is cut by one-half to two-thirds in a home with sprinklers when compared to fires in homes where sprinklers are not present.
- The cost of installing home fire sprinklers averages $1.61 per sprinklered square foot. Nationally, sprinkler installation is 1% to 1.5% of the total building cost.
- Home fire sprinkler systems protect residents; they also protect responding firefighters.
- Accidental activation of home fire sprinklers is
extremely rare.
Fire Sprinklers
Smoke alarms are essential in every home. While smoke alarms give people
the proper warning time to escape safely, they can only detect a fire,
they cannot stop a fire or protect the property it destroys. . Only fire
sprinklers can detect a fire and automatically extinguish it or keep it
controlled until the fire department arrives.
Properly installed and maintained automatic fire
sprinkler systems save lives, reduce property loss and can help cut
homeowner insurance premiums. Research shows that fire sprinkler system
discounts range from 5% to 30% off homeowner policy premiums. Shop
around for the best discount. Because fire sprinkler systems react so
quickly, they can dramatically reduce the heat, flames and smoke
produced in a fire, reducing the risk of death or injury and giving
families valuable time to get out safely.
Most fire sprinkler systems operate off the household
water main. Modern residential sprinklers are inconspicuous and can be
mounted flush with walls or ceilings. Each fire sprinkler has a
temperature-sensitive element. Sprinklers flow only when the temperature
near the sprinkler reaches 135°F–165°F. Fire sprinklers activate
individually, in response to the high temperature of a fire— smoke,
cooking vapors or steam cannot cause a sprinkler to activate. Each
sprinkler is designed to operate independently — the entire sprinkler
system will not activate all at once. Only the sprinkler closest to the
fire will activate, spraying water directly on the fire. If the fire
spreads additional sprinklers will activate individually in response to
the fire. Ninety percent of the time one sprinkler contains the fire.
Sprinklers use only a small fraction of the water used by fire
department hoses to control or extinguish a fire.
Sprinklers are good for the environment
Many of the products in homes are made from synthetic, man-made
materials that burn quickly and give off deadly fumes. When a fire
department puts out a home fire, a significant amount of pollutants and
toxic materials saturate the air. When homes are gutted and rebuilt, a
tremendous amount of waste ends up in landfills. In addition, the water
run-off from fighting a home fire, which is also filled with toxic
elements, pollutes the water system as well.
According the nonprofit National Fire Protection
Association (NFPA), U.S. fire departments responded to nearly 400,000
home structure fires in 2007. Unless we change the way we manage these
fires, the environmental damage will continue. Residential fire
sprinklers - an established, proven technology - can protect the
environment from these hazards. Along with their proven ability to save
lives and protect property, home fire sprinklers can contain or
extinguish a fire quickly, minimizing the amount of materials burned.
Furthermore, fire sprinklers use significantly less water than the fire
department to extinguish a fire. Fire hoses, on average, use more than
10 times the water sprinklers do to contain a fire. According to a
15-year study on fire sprinkler effectiveness, a fire sprinkler uses, on
average, 341 gallons of water to control a fire, whereas firefighters,
on average, use 2,935 gallons and the water that’s released from a fire
sprinkler doesn’t impact the community sewer system.