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Fire sprinklers have been in use in the United States since 1874. In all that time, there have been no recorded instances of more than two civilians being killed by fire in a fully sprinklered building.
The National Fire Protection Association states that the fatalities in sprinkler-equipped buildings have generally occurred when the victims were in direct contact with the fire before the sprinkler was triggered. In other words, unless you have been playing with explosives, a sprinkler system will probably save your life in a fire.
According to the Scottsdale Report, which was released in 1997, there have been no fire deaths in Scottsdale in homes with sprinklers since the fire sprinkler ordinance went into effect in 1986.
Though many of us have seen movies in which all the fire sprinklers in a building go off randomly and simultaneously, ruining everything beneath them, this is fiction. Fire sprinkler heads are activated by heat, not by smoke.
When the most common type of residential fire sprinkler reaches a temperature of about 150° Fahrenheit, a metal disk in the sprinkler head melts, and water flows out of the sprinkler. In most cases, only the sprinkler nearest the fire goes off.
The authors of the Scottsdale Report noted that in addition to saving lives, the fire sprinkler ordinance has also reduced property damage. Part of this reduction is no doubt due to the fact that a residential fire sprinkler sprays an average of 341 gallons of water to extinguish a fire, while firefighters use an average of 2,935 gallons.
Not surprisingly, many insurance companies give a 10 to 15 percent discount to homeowners whose homes have sprinkler systems. Encouraging homeowners to install sprinkler systems is in the insurance companies' best interests, since fire sprinklers reduce property losses by one-half to two-thirds.
From Green Housekeeping, by Ellen Sandbeck. Copyright © 2006 by Ellen Sandbeck. Reprinted by permission of Scribner, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc., NY.
