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Commentary: The case for home fire sprinklers

Norman E. Feder
Chairman, North Collier Fire Control and Rescue District board of commissioners
Norman Feder
North Collier fire-rescue board chairman

Homes in the Naples area are missing an important fire prevention tool. People install fire alarms, call 911 but ultimately bypass one additional tool that cuts down fire damage by 70 percent.

Most homeowners don’t install fire sprinklers.

Home fires are a major problem in the United States: 350,000 home fires occur each year, killing approximately 2,500 to 3,000 people. To show the enormity of the issue, roughly 80 percent of all fire deaths are the result of home fires.

Why should a homeowner spend the money to install a sprinkler system?

It cuts down fire damage by 70 percent and creates less water damage than a fire hose. In most cases, a fire sprinkler will only turn on where the actual fire is located in the home, minimizing water damage while helping put out the fire.

Installing a fire sprinkler system also cuts the risk of dying in a home fire by an astounding 80 percent.

What’s the cost?

A report commissioned by the Fire Protection Research Foundation places the national average cost of installing sprinklers in a new home at $1.35 per sprinklered square foot, or about 1 percent of the total construction cost.

Protecting your home with sprinklers costs less than your granite countertops and could save you hundreds or thousands of dollars if a home fire occurred.

Who has home sprinklers?

Some homeowners voluntarily install sprinklers in single-family homes. Homes in The Strand (Bay Colony), Barefoot Beach and the Talis Park communities have chosen to install sprinklers. There are homes in Talis Park obligated by code to install sprinklers because of their distance to the main roadway.

Fire sprinkler opponents like to say “newer homes are safer homes.”

Don’t let new construction homes fool you. In actuality, newer homes tend to have larger open spaces, lightweight construction materials and furniture stuffed with combustible materials — all factors that fuel a fire and cause it to spread quickly. These threats place both homeowners and firefighters at significant risk.

Smoke alarms are vital in alerting homeowners, but remember smoke alarms do nothing to suppress fire.

Residents have as little as one to two minutes to safely escape a burning home — this includes trying to grab kids, loved ones and your animals.

Only home fire sprinklers have the ability to contain and possibly extinguish a fire in less time than it would take the fire department to arrive.

This could be the life-or-death difference for yourself, your children or your pets. That makes it worth it.

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