Save lives from fire with sprinklers

What can you do in three minutes? Three minutes is about the amount of time it takes to brush your teeth or microwave a bag of popcorn. Incredibly, it’s also how fast New York’s Bravest arrived on the scene of the city’s deadliest fire in 25 years.

So why did so many die? Because three minutes is also the time it takes to reach “flashover,” the stage of a fire in which rising temperatures cause a simultaneous heating of smoke and gas that cause the spread of flames rapidly throughout a space resulting in full room involvement.

Smoke alarms typically don’t activate until 45 seconds after the fire starts; within three minutes, temperatures can approach almost 1,000 degrees.

While it was three minutes in the Bronx — testament to the great work of the FDNY — response times could be eight to 10 minutes or more in some parts of rural New York. The simple truth is that in too many cases it is impossible for firefighters to respond fast enough.

With 12 people dead, four of them children; seven civilians and seven more firefighters injured, and 22 families homeless, what will it take for New York to finally take fire safety seriously? How many people have to die for us to take action?

The fact that civilian fire fatalities are lower than they used to be decades ago is of little consolation for the dozens of people whose lives remain at risk.

For nearly 30 years, the New York State Association of Fire Chiefs has been advocating for reforms in New York’s building code to require home fire sprinklers. The evidence is clear that fire sprinklers save lives.

Residential sprinklers are typically set to activate at 150 degrees Fahrenheit, and the average sprinkler system puts out water at an average of 13 gallons each minute.

Sprinklers quickly knock down a fire and allow the residents enough time to evacuate. This is especially important for the elderly and disabled who have mobility issues and cannot quickly evacuate from a fire.

Since 1999 in New York City, all new or significantly renovated multifamily buildings have been required to have sprinkler systems. It is now time for the building code to require all new one- and two-family homes statewide to be equipped with them.

For existing commercial and multifamily buildings, the new federal tax overhaul provides for significant deductions to retrofit with sprinklers. The state could do more to encourage this as well.

In Albany, efforts to reform the building code to require more residential sprinklers have long been stalled. For years, the real estate lobby has effectively killed these common-sense and lifesaving changes — while raising red herrings regarding modernizing the building code and the cost benefit of sprinklers.

These myths have been exposed time and time again. A study conducted by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, College of Urban Affairs, released just days ago, discovered smoke alarms without residential fire suppression systems do not appear to be enough to save lives and/or avert major home damage.

In addition, the report concluded that a residential fire suppression system actually pays for itself in a matter of months after the new home is complete.

The benefits of an updated building code are clear. This fall, as the nation watched Hurricane Irma strike South Florida, many news stories made note of the fact that improved and enhanced building codes, implemented after 65 people died due to Hurricane Andrew back in 1992, resulted in a reduced loss of property and ultimately in fewer lives lost.

The homes and apartment buildings constructed in compliance with these new codes withstood the test of wind and rain brought on by Irma.

While a single weather tragedy is profound, the cumulative impact of fire on lives and property is even larger. In 2017, 2,257 civilians died in United States from fire, and with 138 deaths, New York State had the highest number of any state in the country.

New York will have an opportunity in 2018 to update its building code to the national model developed collaboratively by firefighters, building officials and builders. It is time for our state to act to protect its citizens.

Thirty years of dithering and delays are a disgrace. It’s time for Albany to wake up and for sprinkler systems to be incorporated into our building code. It will save lives.