Solutions Newsletter - Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition

The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) has released the February 2010 edition of its annual report, U.S. Experience with Sprinklers and Other Automatic Fire Extinguishing Equipment, by John R. Hall, Jr. HFSC has selected some highlights of interest to fire departments:

Compared to properties without automatic extinguishing equipment the death rate per fire in sprinklered homes is lower by 83%.

In 2003-2007, sprinklers were reported in only 5% of fires in homes (including apartments).

The 2007 American Housing Survey* included a question about sprinkler presence in homes. The survey indicated 3.9% of occupied year-round housing units had sprinklers. A much smaller percentage of single family homes had sprinklers as compared to multi-unit housing. Sprinklers were present in:

1.5% of single family detached homes,*
1.9% of single family homes, whether detached or attached,*
10.6% of all housing units in multi-unit buildings,*
2.9% of housing units in buildings with 2-4 units,*
5.8% of housing units in buildings with 5-9 units,*
12.1% of housing units in buildings with 10-19 units,*
16.3% of housing units in buildings with 20-49 units, and*
27.3% of housing units in buildings with 50 or more units.
Sprinkler presence percentages are higher in the West region than in other regions and lower in rural areas than in non-rural areas.
To underscore the principal finding, more than 1 million single family detached dwellings now have fire sprinklers.

*American Housing Survey 2007, U.S. Department of Commerce and U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, September 2008, Table 1C-4, 2-4, and 2-25.

There is considerable potential for expanded use of sprinklers to reduce the loss of life and property to fire.
In 2003-2007, sprinklers operated in 93% of all reported structure fires large enough to activate sprinklers, excluding buildings under construction and buildings without sprinklers in the fire area
When sprinklers operate, they are effective 97% of the time, resulting in a combined performance of operating effectively in 91% of all reported fires where sprinklers were present in the fire area and fire was large enough to activate them.
In homes (including apartments), wet-pipe sprinklers operated effectively 96% of the time.
In homes (including apartments), wet-pipe sprinklers were associated with a 74% lower average loss per fire.
When sprinklers fail to operate, the reason most often given (53% of failures) is shutoff of the system before fire began.

For more information visit NFPA’s website.