When a factory or a warehouse or a store
burns down, that business is no longer able to operate as it did. When a
residence burns, it leaves families displaced and grieving. Fire
threatens our lives, jobs, and communities.
So every time a fire sprinkler slows or
stops a fire, much more is saved than a building and its contents -
sprinklers save lives and livelihoods.
Fatal
Charleston Fire Renews Calls for Sprinkler Systems
By SEANNA ADCOX - Associated Press Writer
COLUMBIA, S.C. --
Nearly 100 people died in Las Vegas hotel fires in the early 1980s
before laws there changed and all such buildings had to install sprinkler
systems.
In 2004, a year after six people perished in a Chicago
high-rise blaze, officials decided that older buildings in that city also
needed the fire suppression systems. A Rhode Island rock concert fire that
killed 100 people in 2003 led to sweeping fire safety measures in that
state, including requiring most nightclubs to install sprinklers.
In South Carolina, the body count has grown but little
has changed.
"People are being killed in buildings built to code,"
said John Viniello, president of New York-based National Fire Sprinklers
Association. "These fires have got to stop."
South Carolina and as many as 34 other states have no
statewide requirements mandating that older buildings install sprinklers.
The ones that do - including Texas, Virginia, Louisiana and Florida -
require retrofitting in specific types of buildings: college dormitories,
tall apartments or elderly housing. Some cities have their own laws.
The deaths of nine firefighters in a Charleston
furniture store last month renewed the call in South Carolina for
mandatory sprinkler systems, which authorities believe could have at least
delayed the spread of the deadly blaze. But it's a plea that's been made
before.
In 2004, six people died in an arson fire at a
Greenville hotel that didn't have sprinklers. Within a day of bodies being
pulled from the wreckage, some state lawmakers called for laws requiring
older hotels to have sprinkler systems. A trial for the man accused of
setting the fire is under way now.
Opponents of the sprinkler requirement said the cost
would be too high and that the proposal had other flaws. In the end, the
law that did pass required hotels to simply post a notice if they don't
have sprinklers. Fire safety advocates called it pointless.
"It just doesn't make any sense that we shouldn't be
able to do this," said state Sen. David Thomas, a Greenville Republican.
"We shouldn't let another tragedy take place."
Sprinklers are required in some buildings. But South
Carolina and most other states adhere to building codes that are not
applied retroactively. Revised every few years, the codes require
sprinkler systems in many new and renovated buildings. Neither the
Greenville hotel nor the Charleston furniture store were built before
sprinkler protection was required.
Thomas pushed for the hotel sprinkler bill after the
Greenville fire and said he agonized over the furniture store fire in
Charleston, immediately recalling the earlier blaze and his failed attempt
to change the law - even though that wouldn't have applied to the Sofa
Super Store fire.
"We should have done it, and it should have been even
broader," he said.
Thomas said he plans to try again in the next
legislative session, this time expanding the mandate to all commercial and
industrial buildings, but coupling it with business incentives.
Legislators and lobbyists say the new proposal has a better chance at
passage.
"Everybody wants to make buildings safer," said Senate
President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, who opposed the last hotel sprinkler
plan in part because of the cost for businesses.
McConnell said he likes the idea of a measure that
includes tax incentives, insurance discounts and lowering the fees that
communities charge businesses to hook up their sprinklers. But he still
worries what mandated sprinkler systems would do to historic structures.
House Speaker Bobby Harrell, also a Charleston
Republican, said he advocates a tailored approach rather than a blanket
requirement. For example, he said, while furniture stores should have
sprinkler systems, stately homes on the Charleston peninsula used as inns
should not have to retrofit.
"You can't have a one-size-fits-all for all older
buildings," Harrell said.
On average, installing fire sprinkler systems costs
between $1 and $2 per square foot in new construction, while retrofitting
costs between $1.50 to $3 per square foot, said Viniello, the sprinkler
association president. Often, the biggest expenses are fees charged by
city water systems, he said.
Those fees to hook up a fire sprinkler system vary
widely across the state. Charleston Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. has said he
wants his city's water system to eliminate the one-time fees, which can
reach nearly $80,000.
The Municipal Association of South Carolina also is
pushing for communities to get rid of some fees, said executive director
Howard Duvall.
Deadly South Carolina Motel
Fire
Sprinkler System Would Have
Saved Lives In Greenville Motel Fire
Six people, including a toddler, died early January 25,
2004, in a motel fire that sent panicked guests jumping from
windows into the parking lot and produced smoke so thick some of the
victims ran toward the worst of the blaze as they tried to escape. The
fire at the Comfort Inn & Suites started shortly before 4:30 a.m.
All of the bodies were found on the third floor. A
young boy was found lying close to the body of a woman, according to
Greenville County Coroner Parks Evans, along with two other women found in
the hall. Two more people—a man and a woman—were found in separate rooms,
Evans said.
The smoke overcame the victims so quickly that at least
two of them appeared to have fallen as they were walking or running down
the hall, some of them disoriented and moving toward where the fire was
most intense.
A sprinkler system would have saved at least some of
the six people who died in the fire, according to Gary Downey, chief of
the Wade Hampton Fire Department. Bradley Anderson, assistant fire chief
for the City of Columbia, said S.C. hotels and motels with four or more
stories were not required to have sprinkler systems until the '90s. Older
buildings like the Comfort Inn, which was built in 1988, would not be
required to install them. "There's been an ongoing fight by fire chiefs to
urge all hotels and motels to put them in," Anderson said.
"Even though they (the Greenville Comfort Inn) met the
code, if they'd had a sprinkler system they would probably be renting out
those rooms near where the fire occurred tonight," Anderson said. "And you
probably wouldn't have had anyone dead from this fire."
Investigators think the Greenville fire was arson. A
federal reconstruction team will investigate.
Smith Proposes
Sprinklers For Hotels
A bill to require all hotels in South Carolina to have
sprinkler systems to combat fires has been introduced in the state Senate.
Senator Verne Smith, R-Greenville, offered the bill on February 3 in
response to the January 25 hotel fire in Greenville that killed six people
and injured a dozen others. The hotel was not required to have sprinklers
because of its age. "We feel like a sprinkler system in this terrible
tragedy would have saved some lives," Smith said.
His bill would require all hotels in the state to have
the sprinkler systems by July 2007.
Bill In Congress
Would Help South Carolina Businesses Install Sprinklers
The Fire Sprinkler Incentive Act of 2003 (HR.1824 and
S.1566) would provide significant tax incentive for building owners
wishing to install automatic fire sprinkler systems. Currently, when
installing a sprinkler system in any building, the cost of the system is
expensed over the depreciable life. Currently, for a commercial occupancy
this would represent 39 years, a residential occupancy would represent
27.5 years. This actually provides a disincentive to install a
system because of the long payback that can be realized for the
investment.
This bill would allow a straight-line depreciation of
five years. By passing this bill, Congress can have a critical role in
making the places that our citizens live, work, and play dramatically
safer.
The bill is currently in committee. Visit
www.sprinklernet.org for more
information and to contact your Congressman.
South Carolina Representatives Joe Wilson and J.
Gresham Barrett are cosponsor of the House version of the bill.
Top of Page
The Station Nightclub Fire
Sprinklers Would Have Saved
Lives In Nightclub Fire
http://www.tyco-fireproducts.com/database/pdf/StationHouse4.pdf
More than 300 people were in The Station nightclub on
February 20, 2003, in West Warwick, Rhode Island . . . In less than three
minutes, the entire nightclub was a raging inferno. There were no fire
sprinklers in the facility.
100 people were killed, and almost 180 were injured,
many critically in this disaster. . . .
Shortly after the fire, an associate professor from the
University of Maryland indicated to the media that the fire was so fast
and hot, that he doubted even fire sprinklers could have prevented what
had happened. This statement got the attention of Tyco Fire Products R&D
department, who consequently simulated (2) fire tests in their lab. The
simulated ceiling and "stage" wall did have flammable foam backing to get
a reasonable test result. The first test had no sprinklers, and the second
test had (1) standard fire sprinkler installed. The results are clear. A
sprinkler controlled the fire to near suppression within 35 seconds of
ignition.
Deadly Nightclub Fire
The West
Warwick, Rhode Island, nightclub fire at The Station, which erupted during
a pyrotechnics display on February 20, ranks as one of the deadliest fires
in nightclubs and other social assemblies in U.S. history. For the latest
information, go to
www.nfpa.org/nightclub. (National Fire Protection
Association)
It is noteworthy that "NFPA has no record
of a fire killing two or more people in a completely sprinklered public
assembly, educational, institutional, or residential building where the
system was properly operating." See "U.S. Experience with Sprinklers"
under NFPA Publications in the Research and Reports section for the
complete report.
60 Minutes II Investigates
Fatal Fire
CBS's 60
Minutes II featured a segment on March 5, 2003, asking how a
catastrophic fire such as the one at The Station that killed 99 people
could possibly happen. Read the printable version at
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/03/05/60II/main542921.shtml. The
story fully supports the installation of automatic fire sprinkler systems
in public assemblies.
Top of Page
Nursing Home Tragedies
Sprinklers Could Have
Saved Our Most Vulnerable Citizens
Several fires over the past year have claimed the lives
of some of our nation's most vulnerable citizens, exposing the unnecessary
danger in many nursing homes across the country.
February 26, 2003 - A fire in the Greenwood
Health Center in Hartford, Connecticut, killed 15 residents.
September 25, 2003 - There were 15 reported
fatalities in a Nashville, Tennessee nursing home fire, among them the
mother of a local district fire chief.
January 20, 2004 - Five residents of a
Maryville, Tennessee, nursing home died in a fire.
According to James M. Shannon, President and
CEO of the National Fire Protection Association, in the March/April 2004
edition of NFPA Journal, many of us know what to do if fire strikes
in our homes, but those who live in nursing homes must rely on help from
caregivers at the time of fire. Will there be enough hands to lift and
evacuate patients, close doors, and call for help, when the only fire
protection systems in place are the "ordinary" ones, such as fire doors,
smoke alarms, and portable fire extinguishers? The maximum fire protection
that fire sprinklers add is a must in nursing homes.
Top of Page
Residential Success Stories
Fire Sprinklers Stop Fire At
Historic Hotel
A fire sprinkler system prevented a fire from spreading
in the 14th floor hallway of The Pfister Hotel in downtown Milwaukee. More
than 100 years old, The Pfister is Wisconsin's most historic hotel.
According to Captain Anthony Wichman, Milwaukee Fire
Department, a member of the housekeeping staff emptied an ashtray in a
trash can in the housekeeping cart. The cart was in the hallway blocking
the entrance to the room. While the housekeeping staff member cleaned the
bathroom, the fire spread throughout the cart to the hallway walls. Smoke
activated the smoke alarm. The heat from the fire activated a single
sprinkler in the hallway. When firefighters arrived on the 14th floor, the
fire was extinguished by the single sprinkler.
"The sprinkler did what it was supposed to do," Wichman
said. "That cart was filled with towels and combustible cleaning supplies.
That fire had the potential to cause extreme smoke and heat damage on that
floor and probably the floors above and below," he added.
Wichman said that the fire sprinkler probably saved the
staff member's life because the burning cart prevented her from being able
to exit the room.
"Thirty firefighters responded to that fire alarm,"
Wichman said. "We were able to send 20 firefighters back to the station in
minutes because of that sprinkler system. When a building like that is
protected with sprinklers, it prevents our firefighters from being in
danger," he said.
Service technician Brian Kerlin was called to the scene
to replace the sprinkler. "I had to take the service elevator to the 14th
floor. I ran into the woman who was trapped in the room. When she saw I
worked for the sprinkler company she said she thanked God those sprinklers
worked. It kind of gave me the chills," Kerlin said. "That woman got to go
home to her family because of the sprinkler system. It makes me feel good
about the work I do," he said.
Sprinklers Do Their Job
in Care Home
The residents of a Tigard, California adult care
facility were able to remain in their home following a fire, thanks to a
sprinkler head that quickly extinguished a kitchen blaze before it got out
of control.
At the time of the fire, the two caretakers were
preparing the evening meal for the home's five residents. A pan of grease
on the stove burst into flame, and efforts by the caretakers to extinguish
it proved unsuccessful. They quickly called 911 and evacuated the home's
residents.
When firefighters arrived a short time later, they
found all of the home's occupants safely outside and the fire extinguished
by a single sprinkler head, which had activated in the kitchen.
Firefighters shut off the water supply to the sprinkler head and cleaned
up the small amount of water left on the floor.
The fire damage was minimal and the facility continued
to operate that evening.
Sprinklers Control Apartment
Fire
After seeing smoke coming from a second-floor dryer
vent of a three-story apartment building, a police patrolman alerted the
building's occupants and notified the fire department at 10:38 p.m. He
then retrieved the portable fire extinguisher from his cruiser and was
using it on the flames coming from the dryer's open door when a sprinkler
activated. By the time firefighters arrived, the patrolman and the
sprinkler system had extinguished the fire.
The 12-unit, wood-frame apartment building was one of
13 in the complex. Each apartment had a local smoke alarm, and there were
smoke detectors and manual pull stations in the common areas. The building
was also protected by a residential, wet-pipe sprinkler system, and fire
extinguishers were located throughout. The detection and suppression
systems were monitored by a central station alarm company, which called
the fire department when the water flow alarm activated in the unit of
origin.
The fire began when clothes, towels, and other items
the apartment's occupant was drying ignited after the occupant went to
bed. It was the fourth fire in the apartment complex the sprinkler system
controlled or extinguished, and a fire department spokesman noted that,
without the sprinklers, the blaze could have been serious. As it was,
damage to the $450,000 structure was estimated at just $5,000, and damage
to the apartment's contents, valued at $20,000 , came to $2,000.
Toddler Saved by
Sprinkler System
That was the headline in a recent issue of The Sun,
a local newspaper in Bremerton, Washington. According to fire officials,
automatic fire sprinklers prevented a potentially devastating fire in an
apartment building on December 18, 2001. The fire began when a
four-year-old girl reportedly was playing with a lighter and set a bed on
fire.
The sprinklers didn't just contain the blaze; they
extinguished it. "They [sprinklers] are worth every penny," the apartment
manager told the reporter.
According to Bremerton Fire Marshal Scott Rappleye, the
fire was one of two contained by sprinklers in the apartment complex in
the past year. "By living in sprinklered apartment buildings, you cut your
chances of dying by 80 percent nationwide and property loss is reduced in
half," Rappleye explained.
Sprinklers Protect
Residents
A January 9, 2002, article in the
Columbia Daily Tribune, Columbia, Missouri, begins: "The $800,000
taxpayers invested to get sprinkler systems into the city's public housing
high-rises paid off yesterday. . . ."
The pay-off was a sprinkler system successfully
extinguishing a fire that broke out in a second-floor apartment of the
Paquin Tower public housing high-rise building. A city employee noticed
smoke coming out of Apartment 211 and alerted residents. The fire was
caused by an unattended candle left burning on a coffee table. No one was
injured.
"They [sprinkler systems] really change the dynamics of
a fire," Amy Barrett of the city's fire department told the reporter.
Articles taken from
Sprinkler Age /
February 2002
Top of Page
Commercial Success Stories
Sprinklers Control
Nightclub Fire
A nightclub fire in downtown Modesto, California, on
June 14 was controlled by three sprinkler heads and a fire extinguisher
until firefighters arrived. Someone intentionally started the blaze in a
second floor hallway above the nightclub. Six hundred people were safely
evacuated from the building. No injuries were reported. This is the second
fire intentionally set in the last month.
"West Wing" Up in Smoke
The cast of "The West Wing" was in the hot seat on
January 9. And this time, faltering ratings had nothing to do with it. An
electrical fire swept the set of the Emmy-winning NBC drama, causing
firefighters to evacuate the cast and crew from their Burbank soundstage.
Fire department officials say no one was hurt in the
blaze, which was said to be caused by shoddy wiring. Apparently, around 8
a.m., a halogen light popped and the shower of fire ignited a
light-diffusing sheet of fabric above the heads of the actors. But the
set's sprinkler system quickly brought the flames under control until the
fire department showed up. Nearly 100 people escaped the soundstage with
no injuries reported.
"Save is Immeasurable"
At a hotel in Blaine, Minnesota, a laundry room fire
could have been a tragic story. The hotel's exterior horn/strobe was
sounding, indicating that the sprinkler system had activated. Many
occupants were outside the building when the fire trucks arrived. There
had been no evacuation and the first floor alarm had not sounded. The
laundry room fire door was propped open, allowing smoke to enter the lobby
area.
Kathi Osmonson, Fire & Life Safety Educator, said, "The
sprinkler system operated properly, saving the building and the people
left inside. The value of this save is immeasurable."
Sprinkler Extinguishes
Restaurant Fire in New Jersey
A fire broke out in the kitchen of a restaurant that
was closed for the night when a stove burner that had been left on ignited
a pot. As the resulting flames spread to nearby towels, the fire activated
a single sprinkler, which extinguished the blaze and triggered a water
flow alarm that alerted the fire department.
The fire department received the alarm at 9:08 p.m. and
responded within six minutes to discover that a sprinkler had already
controlled the fire, preventing it from spreading beyond the stove.
The property, which sustained less than $100 in damage,
reopened the next day.
Sprinklers Extinguish
Arson Fire
When three dumpsters within 100 yards of each other at
the rear of a strip mall were set ablaze just after midnight, two
sprinklers protecting one of the mall's combustible canopies activated,
preventing the fire from spreading into the building.
The building, valued at $10 million, and its contents,
valued at $23 million, sustained only $5000 in damages.
Top of Page
Industrial Success Stories
Sprinklers Control
Fire in Unoccupied Warehouse
An automotive parts warehouse was spared significant
damage when a single sprinkler operated, controlling a fire that began
when cardboard boxes stored too close to a propane gas-fired ceiling
heater ignited. The central station alarm company that monitored the
sprinkler system alerted the fire department at 5:37 a.m.
Firefighters arrived within eight minutes of the water
flow alarm to find heavy smoke along one side of the building near an
overhead door. When they entered the building, they discovered a small
fire atop a storage rack holding cardboard boxes of automotive parts on
wooden pallets. The extinguished the remaining flames with two 1 1/2-inch
hose lines.
Damage to the property, valued at $567,000, was
estimated at $20,000, and damage to its contents was estimated at $60,000.
There were no injuries.
Sprinklers Save Business -
Twice
The Chanhassen Fire Department [Minnesota] responded to
a water flow alarm in an office/warehouse candle manufacturing facility of
110,000 square feet. An electrical fire over the weekend ignited a small
amount of cardboard setting off one sprinkler head. The fire was limited
to a 6' x 6' area. The business was up and running normally by Monday
morning.
Three weeks later, a small tank of liquid wax ignited
and a second sprinkler activation saved the same business. Two heads were
activated. The fire was limited to a 10' x 10' area.
Sprinklers React to
Explosions in Kansas Packaging Facility
In Atchinson, Kansas, on Wednesday, January 31, 2001, a
packaging facility owned by Midwest Grain Products, Inc. was severely
damaged at 10:00 p.m. by two explosions. A fire ensued but was quickly
extinguished by the structure's fire sprinkler system.
Top of Page
Institutional Success Stories
Lessons of a Fire!
"Lessons of a Fire" is what the headline read in the
Letters section of the New York Times, referring to a fire in an
unsprinklered dormitory at Seton Hall University that claimed the lives of
three students. Unfortunately, this is a scenario that has played out all
too often. Serving as sharp contrast to the Seton Hall tragedy, the
following day fire broke out in a dormitory at Cornell University with
decidedly different results. Students were safely evacuated without injury
and the fire extinguished before the fire department arrived on the scene.
The difference: the Cornell dormitory was protected with an automatic fire
sprinkler system.
Sprinkler Saves
Occupants of Assisted Living Facility
An 84-year-old man living in an assisted-living
facility ignited a cardboard box with a lighter, filling his apartment
with smoke and trapping himself and his wife. A single sprinkler
controlled the fire until firefighters rescued the pair and extinguished
the remaining blaze with an extinguisher.
The man and his 76-year-old wife were treated for smoke
inhalation at the scene. The husband was transferred to the facility's
memory-loss unit for his own protection. No one else was injured.
Valued at $7 million, the building sustained only
$30,000 in damage.
Sprinklers
Extinguish Blaze in Dorm Laundry
The Richmond Fire Department responded to a fire in
Virginia Commonwealth University's Johnson Hall dormitory on the morning
of February 4, 2001.
"The blaze started in a plastic garbage container in a
laundry room on the eighth floor," Joe Kuttenkuller of VCU News Services
said.
"The sprinkler system put the fire out," he said, "and
no significant damage occurred."
Top of Page
Resources
FPC/Fire Protection Contractor Magazine
NFPA Journal, published by the
National Fire Protection Association
(NFPA)
Sprinkler Age Magazine, published
by the American Fire Sprinkler
Association (AFSA)
Top of Page
