A Havre de Grace council member is pushing for the city to require fire sprinklers in all new houses, with plans to introduce the bill at tonight?s meeting and have it on the books by mid-September.
“This is one of the most important pieces of legislation I?ve ever been involved in,” said Council Member Wayne Dougherty, the bill?s sponsor. “The biggest thing is to save lives.”
The proposal would require that all new residential construction ? including single-family houses, modular houses and trailers ? be outfitted with sprinkler systems.
The state has a law regulating apartments and condos, and Aberdeen passed a similar bill. Houses that have been issued their city permits before the bill is passed would not be affected.
In January, volunteer firefighters and administrators from the Susquehanna Hose Company asked the council to consider such a bill, Assistant Chief Scott Hurst said.
Not only could they save people and property, sprinklers can extinguish or contain many fires as emergency crews are en route, Dougherty said.
In May, a deck fire outside a Girard Street condominium was put out by firefighters just before it broke through to the interior of the building, but the condo?s sprinklers would have stopped it had it moved any quicker, Hurst said. The owner was not home at the time.
“Smoke detectors combined with sprinklers decrease the chance of fatalities by 97 to 98 percent,” Hurst said.
Dougherty said he was sure to face some opposition from developers, especially considering the thousands of new houses being built at Bulle Rock.
At an earlier meeting, several residential developers ? including Clark Turner, one of the principal builders at Bulle Rock ? worried that the sprinklers would come with a large price tag.
Installing a system costs about $1.10 per square foot of floor space, Hurst said.
Havre de Grace is expected to have a public hearing on the bill Aug. 21 and hold a special vote after the second reading Sept. 18.
