Sprinklers save lives in fires and are required in most types of commercial and multi-family home construction. But the Virginia Board of Housing and Community Development has decided they’re not needed in single-family homes and townhouses, a decision that has angered firefighters in Northern Virginia.
Homebuilders, on the other hand, are applauding the 10-4 vote by the board, saying the cost of installing sprinklers in new homes would make it difficult to build the 75,000 new homes the region is expected to need over the next few decades.
Among the critics is Keith Johnson, who proposed the defeated sprinkler requirement. Johnson is chief of the Loudoun County Combined Fire-Rescue System and a member of the housing developing board.