Published Friday, March 19, 2010

Firefighters and home builders clash over sprinklers

By Walter C. Jones

Morris News Service

ATLANTA – Georgia home builders are pushing legislation to prohibit local governments from requiring that new houses have fire sprinklers.

To counter them, firefighter groups hauled a modified house trailer to the front of the Capitol Thursday to demonstrate for reporters how quickly automatic sprinklers can extinguish cotton curtains and prevent the whole home from blazing up.

The day before, a House committee approved the legislation they want to stop, House Bill 1196 by Rep. Terry England, R-Auburn.

"You're taking away the private individual's choice," he said.

Georgia had 3,000 residential fires in 2009 resulting in 85 deaths.

The debate comes at a time when home builders are struggling to make money. They fear that customers will be discouraged by the added $1.65-1.75 per square foot the Georgia Fire Sprinkler Association estimates a system would add to the cost of an average home, or $3,500 for a 2,000-square-foot house.

"We've done everything in the world to reduce costs for residential sprinklers," said the association's executive director, Billy Wood.

Commercial structures are already required to have more robust sprinkler systems than homes would need, and 95 percent of fires are quenched with just one or two sprinkler heads activating, he said.

Not only do the sprinklers begin fighting the fire when it is still small and well before fire fighters can arrive, but they also use less water to do it. At an apartment fire earlier that morning a few miles from the Capitol, one sprinkler head doused a stove fire, and workers merely mopped up the water and replaced the stove without the tenants having to lose their home, Wood said.

England's bill would thwart efforts by fire-fighting associations to have the Georgia Department of Community Affairs include mandatory residential sprinklers in the state's model building code next year for implementation in 2012.

"It's just a special-interest group that more or less wants to shut the door down and take the tools away from the community and the fire service and even the Department of Community Affairs," said Cartersville Fire Chief Scott Carter, vice president of the Georgia State Firefighters Association.

England, who also opposes mandatory seat-belt laws, argues individuals would still be able to specify sprinklers in houses they buy or have built.

"We're not doing anything to encumber the individual. They would have to make that decision on their own," he said. "If they want to put it in their homes, it doesn't do anything to stop them."

The bill is likely to come up for a vote in the full House next week.