firesprinkler.tv Fire sprinkler

Builders, plumbers and other professional contractors who do well on the International Code Council Residential Sprinkler Installer Examination demonstrate their qualifications to install in accordance with, and their knowledge of, the sprinkler requirements in the 2009 International Residential Code (IRC). The 2009 IRC requires fire sprinklers in all new townhomes when the code is adopted, and in all new one- and two-family residences beginning Jan. 1, 2011.


Contractor/trades exams are typically used to meet a jurisdiction’s requirements for licensure. Those who pass the exam will receive official documentation of their score report from the ICC that may be presented as evidence for state licensure or other business purposes. Through passing the test, contractors demonstrate their knowledge to code officials, who are responsible for ensuring sprinklers are installed according to code.


The exam assesses competency in five areas: sprinkler components, piping components, water supply, system design and installation. The exam was developed by a committee of experts in the field. Each has practical experience in the design and installation of residential sprinkler systems. The exam references the 2009 IRC, NFPA 13D and NFPA 13.

For more information, go to: http://www.iccsafe.org/certification/2008/pdf/ICC_National_CIB_05122009C.pdf

Firefighters are all fired up about a proposal that would require sprinklers in all new homes. But homebuilders say the idea is all wet. Darren Cunningham shows why this debate is heating up.

Lansing Fire Marshall, Phillip Sabon, has battled a fair share of house fires. That’s why he supports the mandate.

“Sprinklers systems will slow the progression of a fire. It won’t allow it to spread, thus giving the people the ability to get out. Plus, it’s a tool that gives the fire department…makes our job a little bit easier,” says Sabon.

But the Michigan Home Builders Association says the cost makes the requirement unfair.

“They only operate 39% of the time. so why make people spend money that they choose not to spend on sprinklers. we think it’s better spent with a smoke alarm,” says Lee Schwartz of the MAHB.

If the fire sprinklers become mandatory, it will have an even harder affect on groups like Habitat for Humanity who build homes for low-income families.

“We have nothing against voluntary smoke alarms, we are against mandated sprinklers as is Habitat for Humanity, as are building officials, as are a whole host of organizations around the state,” says Schwartz.

But the fire marshal says it’s better to save lives than to try and save money.

Sabon says, “In other areas, of the United States, they do require the sprinklers in residential homes already. Here in Michigan, a fire is going to react the same way on a home in Michigan, as it does in Arizona. So if it’s OK there, it’s OK here.”

Fires in the home pose one of the biggest threats to the people of the United States. About 400,000 home fires occur every year in this country. Residential fire sprinklers are a proven way to protect lives and property against fires at home.
These life-saving systems respond quickly and effectively to the presence of a nearby fire. When sprinklers are present, they save lives and property. If you have a fire in your home, the risk of dying decreases by about 80 percent when sprinklers are present.

People in homes protected by a residential sprinkler system are protected against significant property loss; sprinklers reduce the average property loss by 71 percent per fire. Residential sprinkler systems respond quickly to reduce the heat, flames and smoke from a fire, giving the residents valuable time to get out of the house safely. Most of the time, fires are contained by the operation of a single sprinkler head. Only the sprinkler closest to the fire will activate, spraying water directly on the fire.

A recent report reveals that the cost of installing residential sprinklers averages $1.61 per square foot for new construction. Installing residential sprinklers can reduce property loss, cut homeowner insurance premiums and help qualify a home for a tax rebate.

Gerald Wheeler

Director

New York State Association of Firesafety Educators (NYSAFE)

By ANJALI ATHAVALEY

A handful of states are passing laws that prevent municipalities from requiring fire sprinklers in new homes, months after such mandates were adopted into a widely used residential building code.

Texas, North Dakota and Idaho have passed laws prohibiting local jurisdictions from requiring sprinklers in single- and two-family dwellings. Lawmakers who support such bills say that homeowners should be able to choose whether they want sprinklers, which add to the cost of a home.

A small kitchen fire was extinguished Monday night by an automatic fire sprinkler in a Sioux Falls apartment building, fire officials said.

A tenant at Foxmoor Apartments, 5007 W. Equestrian Place, was cooking when oil in a pan overheated and ignited shortly before 10 p.m. Sioux Falls Fire Rescue responded to the building, near Marion Road and 18th Street, but the sprinkler automatically activated and sprayed water to put the fire out, according to Sioux Falls Fire Rescue.

No damage to the apartment, other than wet carpet, was reported.

Parkland College is hosting a webcast to discuss their new fire sprinkler system degree program.
Source: Parkland College Academy of Fire Sprinkler Technology — Consulting-Specifying Engineer, 7/22/2009 10:59:17 AM CDT

Champaign, Ill.-based Parkland College Academy of Fire Sprinkler Technology is hosting a webcast on July 23 about its new degree program, which begins this fall.

The program will offer students the opportunity to study and create blueprints for fire sprinkler systems. Properly installed sprinklers can save a building both energy and money, and can lead to a reduction in greenhouse gasses and toxic products. Parkland’s program is the world’s first on this subject, and students will become engineering technicians upon completion.

Thos looking for more information can register for the webcast to speak with the directors of engineering technology and work/study for the academy.

Home builders and fire safety officials have been butting heads over a potential mandate for residential fire sprinkler systems, and the debate was being brought to Lansing today.

The state Legislature is considering mandating that all new single-family and two-family homes have a fire sprinkler system. Supporters and naysayers were gathering today to argue their side before the state Building and Code Committee in Lansing, which will make a recommendation on the mandate in the coming months.

The International Code Council, which Michigan and 45 other states use as a basis to set construction codes, adopted a sprinkler mandate last year. Michigan, in its regular three-year review of the code, can adopt it all or in part, cutting unwanted sections.

Proponents believe sprinklers save lives. Those opposed say mandated sprinklers will increase housing prices and handicap an already-struggling building industry.

The sprinklers are not essential, according to Todd Hamstra, a member of Muskegon’s Shoreline Builders Association board of directors. In homes with functioning wired smoke detectors, people safely escape the fire more than 99 percent of the time, he said.

“We would be the first ones to jump on the bandwagon if it were a real safety issue,” Hamstra said.

Hamstra, a director of the Michigan Association of Homebuilders who planned to attend the forum in Lansing today, believes mandated sprinklers would drive up insurance and housing prices.

Price projections for installing sprinklers vary and depend on the system used and whether the home uses a well for its water. Some believe it will make up approximately 1.5 percent of the home’s total cost. Hamstra puts it at $6 per square foot or higher.

“Lower income owners might not be able to pay,” Hamstra said. The extra cost for sprinklers “may be the amount that kicks them off the edge,” he said.

Muskegon Fire Marshal Major Metcalf said more research needs to be done to determine the true cost of fire sprinkler installation.

“I don’t believe it’s as expensive as homebuilders believe it is,” Metcalf said.

Hamstra said water damage from sprinklers would cause higher insurance rates, but Metcalf does not believe they would increase. He said there is a common misconception that sprinklers cause excess water damage.

Each sprinkler head is individually activated by heat, and fire officials say they are not likely to go off for minor issues like burned toast.

Metcalf said fire sprinklers can help curb property damage, citing an apartment fire at 1249 Peck this month that ended in a total loss of the building.

Metcalf and Norton Shores Fire Marshal Norm Hosko, president of the Michigan Fire Inspectors Society, both planned to attend today’s Lansing forum. Hosko said the 3,000 to 4,000 Americans that die in house fires each year are mostly people who struggle to exit the home quickly.

“It’s the 5- and 6-year-olds, the 75- and 80-year-olds that can’t get down the steps and get out the door,” Hosko said. “A sprinkler system may not put the fire out, but it buys time…to get out of the home.”

E-mail Jeff Engel at jrengel@muskegonchronicle.com

In May, fire swept through a beloved Roseville restaurant, putting a dozen people out of work.

A month later, a blaze at a Roseville apartment complex left several people homeless.

The causes differed, but both fires shared a common characteristic

A malfunction in the flow switch that controls the sprinkler system at the Providence Place mall set off the mall

Sprinklers will not have to be installed in townhouses and apartments located in developments that already have been platted, the village board has decided.

The decision will apply to the four developments that already are under construction in Hampshire - Tuscany Woods Unit 1, Lakewood Crossing, Hampshire Highlands and Crown Community Development’s Prairie Ridge Neighborhood O - plus Crown’s Neighborhoods N and S.

Under changes to the building code approved by the board in November, the village will require sprinklers in almost all new buildings except single-family houses. The new code even requires the builder of a single-family home to offer that option to the home buyer.

But on the request of the company that has taken over sales of the unsold townhouses in Tuscany Woods, the board agreed that developments which already had their plats and annexation agreements approved before the new sprinkler rule should be exempt.

Village Administrator Eric Palm said that while “it appears the village could enforce a sprinkler ordinance” even in these subdivisions, the legal situation is cloudy.

He said the annexation and development agreement for Tuscany Woods Unit 1 “speaks more or less to the existing building codes (that were in force at the time the development was approved) being applicable.”

Tuscany Woods Unit 1’s original developer, Pasquinelli Homes, defaulted on a mortgage for the project, and the development was taken over by Park National Bank. Last spring, the bank hired Gladstone Builders to market the existing finished and partly finished homes and townhouses there.

Gladstone vice president Adam Dontz told the village board that putting in sprinklers would add about $10,000 to the cost of a 1,500-square-foot townhouse. But board members questioned whether that figure was accurate. Officials of the Hampshire Fire Protection District had estimated the cost at $1 to $3 per square foot before the code change was passed in November, and Trustee George Brust said during last week’s village board meeting that contractors tell him the cost is about $1.75 per square foot.

The new code already says sprinklers will not be required for existing residential buildings, unless they undergo a major remodeling.

Dontz said after the meeting that since the Tuscany Woods sales resumed, two buyers have signed contracts for townhouses there, but no final sales closings have taken place.