Home Fire Sprinkler Week
Home Fire Sprinkler Week 2022 – NFPA 13D
Every year around the same time an entire week is dedicated to home fire sprinklers. In the case of this year, we can look forward to this special week May 15th– May 21st. What is Fire Sprinkler Week? Fire Sprinkler Week is a project of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), the Fire Sprinkler Initiative, and the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition. Every day over the course of the week, the NFPA presents the opportunity for the fire service to bring together their digital voices and spread the word about the life saving benefits of home fire sprinklers. The Campaign is simple, every day there is a different theme and content for social media and websites. You can choose which messages you want to share or share them all! The goal is to flood the Internet with facts about home fire sprinklers and bring awareness to this life saving initiative. Want to participate? Click here! Home Fire Sprinkler Week Virtual Events
Home Fire Sprinkler Week is intended to deliver the message on how important fire sprinklers really are in a private dwelling. Sprinklers buy the homeowner time, time buys life. In short, fire is very fast, would you have enough time to escape a home fire? A house fire can become deadly in as little as two minutes. Between three to five minute the fire can flashover. Flashover is when the fire becomes so developed and hot that all the contents and smoke in the room become the same temperature that everything erupts into fire at the same time by way of a violent flashover. When flashover occurs, no one survives. Fires burn quickly and are more deadly today because of what we have in our homes as well as the lightweight construction that makes up our homes. Our furniture and belongings are made of resin-based plastics and synthetics that make fire burn hotter and faster creating 200% more toxic smoke then home fires from our grandparent’s era. In a home fire you have less than two minutes to escape before the house will be consumed by smoke. If the smoke alarm went off in the middle of the night, would you have enough time to escape? If there were small children or older adults with disabilities, could they get out on their own in time?
Home fire sprinklers are designed for one purpose, and that is to control the fire to buy time for the homeowners to get out safely. A fire sprinkler can control a fire in as little as a minute and a half. Only the sprinkler head closest to the fire activates. That stops the fire and smoke from spreading. Fire sprinklers work automatically and immediately and are only activated by heat, not smoke. It’s like having a firefighter on duty in your home 24 hours a day. The NFPA document NFPA 13D spells out the criteria of what a residential fire sprinkler system needs to be able to do. The system is only required to protect occupied spaces in the home. An occupied space can include a living room, bedroom, kitchen and hallways or any common space that is typically occupied by a resident. NFPA 13D specifically applies to one- and two-family homes, manufactured homes, and town houses with the sole mission of life safety. The fire sprinkler system must be able to support up to two fire sprinkler heads flowing water at one time and be able to do so for a minimum of ten minutes. There are many different styles and applications of fire sprinklers that fit any need there may be. Each sprinkler has its own temperature sensitive part. This is what holds back the water. If a fire starts, the high heat from it causes that temperature sensitive part to break open, thus releasing the water onto the fire. For a home fire sprinkler, the sprinkler head will typically open between 135 degrees and 165 degrees. In most fires in sprinklered homes, just one sprinkler head is enough to control the fire. As stated above, the movies have lied to us all, only the sprinkler head closest to the fire will activate, not all the sprinkler heads in the home. Also, a fire sprinkler will not cause as much water damage we are led to believe. A Residential fire sprinkler will flow approximately 10-26 gallons of water a minute, which is 1/10th of what a fire hose would flow into the home.
A major factor that contributed to development of NFPA 13D was the 1973 publication of the report “America Burning” by the National Commission on Fire Prevention and Control (later named the US Fire Administration) focused national attention on the residential fire problem. This report, … indicated that the majority of fire deaths in the United States occurred in residential occupancies. Today’s homeowners are safety conscious and want to protect their families and pets. 74% of homeowners say they are more likely to buy a home with fire sprinklers. Interested in learning more about fire sprinklers for your home? Visit the National Fire Sprinkler Association at Find a Contractor – NJFSAB & PenJerDel (New Jersey), & Pennsylvania Contractors – NJFSAB & PenJerDel (Pennsylvania) and we will be happy to put you in touch with a local fire sprinkler contractor. A local fire sprinkler contractor will be able to answer all your questions and afford you the opportunity to protect those you cherish by outfitting your residence with a home fire sprinkler system.