"State and local officials are now wrestling over whether to adopt
building codes that would require sprinklers in every new home and
townhome starting in 2011 amid intense lobbying from both sides."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090918/...ome_sprinklers
I've always been a fan of that plan. I see it as the best solution,
eliminating the response time from the fire department. The downside
would be the water damage from a relatively easy to control fire, but
likely worth the risk. They should be zoned though, no point in
washing down the TV in the living room to control a little fire in the
kitchen. Easy to turn off would be another good feature, auto off
after flames subside for 10 minutes or so. even better, so long as it
had the ability to turn back on if the embers came back to life. Cost
would probably eliminate those desirable features though.
I'm of the opinion there are better solutions:
1. If a city can mandate smoke alarms (at, say, $5.00 each), it could
easily mandate fire extinguishers for the same amount. This is a big
difference from $1,500.00 to install sprinklers.
2. If response time from the fire department is an issue, beef up the fire
department! In my city, our fire department virtually guarantees the first
piece of equipment will be on-scene within four minutes of the alarm.*
3. If sprinklers were worth it, insurance companies would be offering
discounts to homeowners. Obviously, the insurance people couldn't offer a
big enough discount to amortize the cost of sprinklers.
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* Last year the power went out in my home. After putzing around for about
ten minutes, I stepped outside from boredom. Jay-suss! There were
FORTY-TWO fire department vehicles on my block! (I've got pictures) Seems
there was a spreading kitchen fire in the apartment house across the
street.
The fire department had ripped down and uprooted the iron-picket fence
between the apartment units and the street, had run hoses off to the
horizon, and swarmed over the whole shebang like vultures on a dead zebra.
There were ladder trucks, ordinary pumper trucks, a truck with ladders
that could reach the thirty-seventh floor of this two-story aparment
house, a water-spray truck with a boom like a cherry-picker, supervisor
vans, ambulances, a cascade unit, special operation's vans, and a HUGE,
black, bus-looking vehicle labeled "City of Houston Mobile Command Center"
that looked like the thing that carries seniors to the local Indian
reservation for a day of gambling.
I recognized one of the station numbers on a pumper. It was from the
station near the Texas Medical Center, some eight miles away.
In addition to the 42 fire trucks in front of my house, a couple of
neighbors reported that several pumpers were stationed up to six blocks
away with hoses connected to fireplugs ready to race to the scene with
more water.
There were police cars without number to direct the traffic. News vans. A
helicopter. A power company truck (he was the one that cut power to the
block). Everything but a steam-powered calliope playing the Star Spangled
Banner. I half-expected a hurdy-gurdy man with a monkey and a tin cup.
Lordy!
On the plus-plus side, I now know what to do if I get lonely.
*In NJ the fire extinguisher manufacturers lobbied for mandatory fire
extinguishers in every home. So now we are required to have a visible fire
extinguisher in or close to our kitchens. When we sell our homes we have to
pay for a smoke alarm and fire extinguisher inspection by the town before we
can close. I talked to several fire inspectors about this and they all said
that they were against this law. Their thinking is that they want people to
get out of the house if there is a fire; not stick around and try to put it
out.
There are many towns here that have all volunteer fire departments. The
response time can be as long as 20 minutes. Sprinklers are not a bad idea
in a situation like that. I personally feel that the fire rating for walls
and ceilings should be increased in certain areas of the house such as the
kitchen and garage.