Facts About Home Fire Sprinklers

10/12/2017 (Permalink)

Make no mistake: smoke alarms are crucial and significantly cut the risk of dying in a home fire. But these devices do nothing to suppress a fire. Home fire sprinklers in coordination with smoke alarms have been proven to protect lives and property against fire. 

Home fire sprinklers

• If you have a reported fire in your home, the risk of dying decreases by about 80 percent when sprinklers are present.
• Sprinklers reduce direct property damage by about 70 percent per fire.
• Research shows that when sprinklers were present during a fire, the fire is kept to the room of origin 97 percent of the time.
• Roughly 85 percent of the time, just one sprinkler operates during a fire.
• Each individual sprinkler is designed and calibrated to go off only when it senses a significant heat change.
• Only the sprinkler closest to the fire will activate, spraying water directly on the fire.

Model safety codes now require the use of home fire sprinklers in new one- and two-family homes. These requirements offer the highest level of safety to protect the people of your community. To learn how to advocate for fire sprinklers in your community’s new homes, visit NFPA’s Fire Sprinkler Initiative site.