The fire service has pushed for many years for codes to be changed and require residential fire sprinklers.  While the fire service has won the national battle, we are losing many of the state battles, with state legislatures opting to exempt the requirement for residential sprinklers.  Even within the fire service, we continually work to educate our own firefighters on the benefits of fire sprinklers in the saving of lives, including those of firefighters. The U.S. Fire Administration is in a unique position to spotlight this life saving technology as part of its reporting system.

In February of this year, the USFA provided a report entitled Civilian Fire Injuries in Residential Buildings which was followed up in April by the companion report Civilian Fire Fatalities in Residential Buildings.   Each report details information found in the data from 2009 to 2011. In review of the press releases, bullet points and the complete reports there is no mention of civilian injuries, or fatalities, in residential buildings, with Fire Sprinkler Systems. My guess is the number of reported injuries and deaths was either none or was so small that it was considered insignificant. But yet this should speak volumes.

The USFA reports provide valuable information for the fire service and there is no debate to that.  But what if the first bullet point was 0% or less than .01% of civilian injuries or deaths occurred in a residential building with an NFPA compliant Fire Sprinkler System?  To me, that would underscore the value of residential fire sprinkler systems.  Each time those reports are released and read by the public, an elected official, a student working on a research paper or a member of the fire service we need to plant that seed, residential fire sprinklers save lives, the lives of civilians as well as the lives of firefighters.

On behalf of the Western Fire Chiefs Association, I would like to thank the USFA for its continued effort to fight fire with facts.  Further, I would strongly encourage the USFA to include data sets pertaining to residential fire sprinklers in future reports to help the fire service win the information battle in every state.