Fire Statistics
Residential fires cause more deaths, injury, &
property loss than any other kind of fire!
Sprinklers Have An Outstanding Safety Record
Automatic sprinklers have provided an outstanding safety record in
industrial, commercial and institutional applications for over 100 years. No
known multiple deaths- involving the loss of three or more lives- have occurred
during this century except in cases involving arson or flammable liquids.*
Reports further indicate that only a couple of individual fatalities have taken
place in buildings containing properly designed and maintained sprinkler
systems.
Sprinklers represent a remarkable achievement in public safety.
They have
successfully limited fires to the area of origin 96% of the time, and they have
proven to reduce overall property damage by at least 50 to 60%.
Flame Isn't Usually the Killer
Smoke kills. Smoke spreads faster than a raging fire and contains lethal
carbon monoxide.
After a fire bursts into an open flame, the first moments are critical for
survival. Deaths occur most frequently when a fire burns out of control and
blocks escape exits with heat and smoke.
The mere shock of a fire disorients victims. The blinding, billowing smoke
further compounds their confusion. When victims cannot escape a fire, smoke
inhalation usually consumes them before they succumb to the deadly gases.
Children and the Elderly Are Often the Victims
Children and elderly citizens account for an overwhelming number of fire
fatalities because they are frequently unable to leave a burning house without
assistance.
Confusion, handicaps and weak conditions often confine the elderly to a
specific area.
Very young children need to be carried. Toddlers and older children become
frightened and often wait for a parent to tell them what to do. After the
fires are extinguished, young children are often found deceased in closets by
Firefighters.
Just Three Short Minutes…
Within three minutes from bursting into flames, a fire may consume the
contents, walls and ceiling of the room where it started, and the combination of
heat and carbon monoxide can kill everyone in the immediate area. The fire
may double in volume every 30 seconds.
Residential Fires Are the Most Deadly
Over 80% of the deaths and 72% of the injuries in the United States occur in
residential fires. The United States of America holds the worst
fire record
in the entire industrialized world - not a proud statistic in a country as
technologically advanced as ours.
Our society continually advocates the usage of technologically advanced
products. Far too often, however, people tend to put life safety on the back burner.
The same technology that provided a century of fire protection to business
and industry is available today for your home. Residential fire sprinklers are THE
LIFE SAVING SOLUTION.
The information from "Fire
Sprinklers Save Lives Property & Money" August 1994 (below) is provided by:
The
United States Fire Administration
Fire Sprinklers Save Lives Property & Money
Residential Fire Sprinklers Save Lives, Property and Money. Partners for
Fire Safe Homes urges you to take action today to learn more about how this
new technology could be brought to your home and your community.
There are excuses for not taking action today, but there are no reasons
for delay.
Technology has created attractive, unobtrusive design of residential fire
sprinklers.
Residential fire sprinkler technology has advanced reliability and
responsiveness.
In experiences to date, 93% of fires are contained with one or two fire
sprinklers. Each residential fire sprinkler responds independently, resulting in
fires rarely spreading beyond the room of origin.
A community with fire sprinklers will require significantly less water
for fire suppression. Residential fire sprinklers use as little as 10- 1 8
gallons of water per minute -- responding fire services will discharge 150
gallons or more per minute to manually suppress a small house fire.
RESIDENTIAL FIRE SPRINKLERS SAVE…
We have a serious problem in our communities. Nearly once a minute, somewhere
in America, there is a
home fire serious enough that the fire department is called. Roughly, once
every one and a half seconds an unreported fire occurs.
The costs are great -- home fires account for more than 20% of all reported
fires, nearly 80% of all fire-related deaths (more than 3,500 each year) and
more than 40% of the total fire property losses (nearly $4 billion a year).
RESIDENTIAL FIRE SPRINKLERS SAVE LIVES
Residential sprinkler use is not widespread, but other sprinkler
installations have proven life saving value.
The NIST study estimates that fire sprinklers, in combination with smoke
detectors, could reduce the fire death rate by 82%. With a current residential
fire death rate of 8.1 deaths per thousand fires, the life saving potential is
great.
Anecdotal data collected by Operation Life Safety is every bit as dramatic.
In the 476 fires reported (through July 31, 1993) with properly installed
sprinkler systems there has been one fatality, in which an 87-year old
individual died because of age and frailty when his bed and bed clothes caught
fire.
Presently, less than one half of one percent of homes have residential fire
sprinklers, so residential fire sprinklers by themselves will not save the
nation's fire problem in the near term. But they will begin to make a
significant impact as the installation rate increases.
RESIDENTIAL FIRE SPRINKLERS SAVE PROPERTY
Since the implementation of the 1985 residential sprinkler ordinance in
Scottsdale, AZ, fire loss has dropped by 84% (measured per $100 of assessed
value). Scottsdale's tracking data show that the average loss in a home with
sprinklers in the city, from 1985 - 1992, was $2,665, while the figure for the
average loss in a house without sprinklers was $17,067.
RESIDENTIAL FIRE SPRINKLERS SAVE MONEY
For your community...
Several high growth California communities -- Fresno, San Clemente, Palm
Springs and Mountain View - all report reduced growth of fire department costs,
without any reduction in the level of service since the introduction of
residential fire sprinklers.
Scottsdale, AZ, has had similar experiences. Scottsdale grew
by nearly 30% in the seven years after introducing widespread use of sprinklers.
Today Scottsdale citizens pay 30-50% less for fire services than residents in
surrounding communities. At the same time, the city's fire service is able to
employ better than 50% more fire prevention personnel than other departments in
the Phoenix area. These individuals spend their time in public fire education,
building inspection, plan review, arson investigation... Time spent
preventing fires rather than fighting them!
For homebuilders...
Important research is underway to advance the technology,
reduce the cost and identify ways to overcome barriers to widespread use. There
is increasing evidence that innovations like combining the sprinkler system with
the in-home plumbing system, streamlining of the design and permit process,
acceptance of building code alternatives and new ideas in site plans for
subdivisions can change the economics of sprinkler decisions.
Building code alternatives that communities can consider
include: reduction in fire rated gypsum wall board requirements, alterations to
attic fire stops, and reduced fire retardant standards for both masonry walls
and doors. Cobb County, GA, is a national leader in building code alternatives,
particularly for multi-family units.
More widespread is the use of alternatives in site plans for
subdivisions that use residential fire sprinklers. Variations in length of set
back, density of housing units, street width, turn around radius in cul-de-sacs,
water main size and distance between fire hydrants, among others, produce cost
savings for builders.
The United States Fire Administration is sponsoring a program
with the National Association of Home Builders Research Center and the
International City Management Association to identify barriers to residential
fire sprinklers and test alternatives. They have developed and are testing a
guide to simplify residential fire sprinkler system design and engineering and
are working with combined domestic water and sprinkler system installations. In
Cedar Rapids, IA, demonstrations using the guide and a combined system,
wholesale costs have dropped under 50 cents per square foot. In their Prince
George's County, MD, work, and in eight other sites, the guide has dropped costs
to about 80 cents per square foot. Combined systems are expected to reduce these
costs further.
For homeowners...
Residential fire sprinklers save lives and property. This
alone makes them a plus for homeowners. In commercial and multi-family settings,
fire sprinklers also result in fire insurance premium reductions. Owners of four
of five retrofit multi-family units in a United States Fire Administration
project received reductions in insurance premiums, ranging from 4-40%. More work
is needed to encourage the insurance industry to carry long standing commercial
discounts for sprinklers to the residential market.
Partners for Fire Safe Homes urges you to take action
today to learn more about how this new technology can come to your community.
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