The industry is dedicated to saving lives ... and that’s where home fire sprinklers come in.

Members of the fire service across the country know that home fire sprinklers save lives. They speak of losses – personal, property and, most of all, peace of mind.

Many have seen fire’s devastation firsthand and know that smoke alarms alone can’t always save a person’s life. But there is something that can, and that’s the good news. Home fire sprinklers and smoke alarms together – relative to having neither – can reduce the risk of death in a home fire by 82%.

Undaunted by a constant barrage of rumors and myths surrounding residential sprinkler systems, first responders continue to spread the good news. At community service meetings, school career nights, block parties, festivals and even on the construction site of a new development, these people have taken to heart that they are an important part of the lifesaving solutions that come with home fire sprinklers, too.

They want to persuade the public about the inherent pluses of home fire sprinklers and that these devices can contain and even extinguish a fire in less time than it would take the fire department to arrive on the scene. As an active early warning/suppression system, there’s nothing better than home fire sprinklers.

Even before the creation of the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition and during the tenure of Operation Life Safety and other early predecessors to HFSC, first responders have taken education upon themselves. And today, thanks to efforts by HFSC and others, they find the task a bit easier with a vast array of brochures, videos, presentations and demonstrations that set the record straight about how these devices work – and why they work so well.

First in Georgetown, SC, then in Akron, OH, and now, in Jackson, MI, Fire Chief Kenneth Gaiser of the Jackson Fire Department continues to use every angle he can to get the truth out about home fire sprinklers. He works with local and national television and newspaper media, talks to community groups, and never loses an opportunity to tell the fire sprinkler side of the story. When a community group has a scheduled speaker that’s a no-show, he’ll often hand-deliver the video, “Protect What You Value Most,” as a fill-in.

“There’s no doubt in my mind after 38 years in fire service that we could eliminate unnecessary death from fire with home sprinklers,” Gaiser says. “We need to educate people so they will voluntarily install home fire sprinklers, just by knowing all the facts.”

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