Increasing awareness about home fire sprinklers is helping to build momentum from national to grassroots levels.
I was at the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition (HFSC) booth at a recent conference when I met a fire marshal from Florida. He told me that he’d picked up the HFSC brochure a few years before, and that he’d used the information to require a developer to include sprinklers in new homes in exchange for allowing a single entrance to the development. By equipping the homes with an affordable, effective means of fire protection – one that dramatically reduces the fire risk for residents and firefighters – the developer was able to reduce costly infrastructure associated with the project.
The fire marshal’s story is one of many indications that we’re starting to see a shift in momentum for home fire sprinklers. More and more, we hear of fire officials and authorities having jurisdiction (AHJs) who are working with developers, planners and other stakeholders to provide cost-saving trade ups or incentives when the development is protected using HFSC’s developer incentive program. (It’s up to AHJs to determine which incentives are appropriate for their communities; while the single-entrance development worked in the Florida example, it might not be an option for communities with a high risk of wildfire.) This is encouraging, because we all know the challenges that come with raising awareness around the need for home fire sprinklers. Fire-safety advocates and fire departments must combat persistent sprinkler myths with the facts about why fires in unprotected homes become deadly so quickly, and how home fire sprinklers work to save lives.
That’s why the fire service is such a valuable ally in this work. At that same conference, leaders of all the major fire service organizations including NFPA participated in a ‘Fire Service One Voice’ panel where home fire sprinklers were a key point. Fire Service One Voice is an effort led by the U.S. Fire Administration to share the same messages about today’s fire challenges and their impact on the fire service, and the message around sprinklers and home fires is clear. Homes present the greatest fire risk to residents and responding firefighters. Home fires can become deadly in as little as two minutes because of modern construction methods, the use of synthetic materials and furnishings, and emerging technologies such as lithium-ion batteries. Home fire sprinklers are the only proven technology that can deploy immediately and stop a fire from becoming deadly. Yet jurisdictions are allowing substandard homes to be built when they omit sprinklers from the code, putting residents and firefighters at risk.
At the grassroots level, HFSC offers local fire departments powerful support through its Built for Life Fire Department Program (BFLFD), which supports department efforts to educate communities about home fire sprinklers and to achieve community risk reduction goals. More than 3,600 fire departments nationwide have pledged their involvement, with program participation steadily increasing. HFSC’s relationship with these departments is collaborative; HFSC offers opportunities including stipends to support grassroots programs and community outreach, and participating departments share success stories and provide feedback on new resources.
At this year’s NFPA Conference & Expo®, I look forward to hosting a workshop featuring panellists from a range of disciplines who will discuss proven strategies to increase the number of homes built with sprinklers. They will highlight successful approaches that kept sprinklers in the codes when local codes were being updated and ensured that new ordinances required sprinklers, and they will offer details and insights on other scenarios involving developer incentives.
With your help, we’ll soon see more homes nationwide with fire sprinklers, protecting residents and firefighters.
About the Author
Lorraine Carli
Lorraine joined NFPA in 2006 as vice president of communications. She now serves as vice president of outreach and advocacy and oversees media, public affairs, and advocacy activities. She is also responsible for the NFPA wildfire, public education, and US/Canada regional operations divisions, community risk reduction and stakeholder engagement, and the association’s magazine, NFPA Journal®.
Lorraine earned a BA in journalism from Northeastern University and a master’s degree in education from the University of Massachusetts. She has been an adjunct professor at Suffolk University in Boston, teaching graduate public relations courses. Lorraine is president of the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition and past president and current member of The Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors board of directors. She is also a member of the National Fallen Fire Fighters Foundation board of directors and president of the Electric Safety Foundation International (ESFI) board of directors.
