Home fires claim the lives of seven people each day. Home fire sprinklers can help eliminate these tragedies, but legislative barriers and a general unawareness of this technology have prevented its use in new homes. America’s fire service and safety advocates will be able to take action in unison to raise national awareness of these challenges and a fire sprinkler’s life-saving ability.
NFPA's Fire Sprinkler Initiative and the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition (HFSC) are initiating Home Fire Sprinkler Day on May 19, 2018. This project tasks safety advocates across the U.S. with hosting simultaneous events promoting home fire sprinklers. While raising awareness of the home fire problem, these events will also underscore the life-saving impact of fire sprinklers and legislative barriers to its use. The aim is to have the fire service and other safety advocates host at least one sprinkler-related event on the same day in all 50 states.
Illuminating fire problem and its solution
“The alarming number of home fire deaths and injuries each year should be on the radar of every decision maker and member of the media,” says Lorraine Carli, NFPA’s vice president of Outreach and Advocacy and HFSC’s president. “Through this event, we hope to illuminate the fire problem and its solution on a national scale. Fire sprinklers have been a U.S. model building code requirement since 2009, yet challenges to its adoption still exist. Taking action collectively will send a powerful message that fire sprinklers are widely accepted and must be embraced in every state.”
Taking action is easy. Some possible activities include:
- Host a side-by-side live burn/fire sprinkler demonstration
- Conduct a fire department open house featuring fire sprinkler information and sprinkler riser display