Harford County Fire Department officials are calling a recent minor fire strong evidence of how residential sprinkler systems can save lives and property.
A hot iron left unattended on a bookshelf sparked a fire Friday afternoon in the Washington Park Apartments in Aberdeen, but a single-activated sprinkler quickly extinguished the flame, Harford County Volunteer Fire and EMS spokesman Rich Gardiner said. By the time firefighters arrived, the fire had been reduced to smoldering embers.
“It?s clear-cut evidence that sprinklers work,” Gardiner said. “If the sprinklers hadn?t been there, we could have had a repeat of what we had in March.”
On March 2, the same apartment complex suffered $300,000 in damage when an industrial heater sparked a fire during a renovation project ? before the sprinkler system was working.
This time, the fire only caused about $500 in damage, though Gardiner could not tell whether that included water cleanup. No one was home at the time of the fire, but Gardiner emphasized that a sprinkler system is important in containing and fighting fires and smoke automatically while residents escape.
Harford County is studying the feasibility of a countywide ordinance that would require sprinkler systems to be installed in all new detached single-family homes, but is facing opposition from national home builders? groups, said John Bender, safety officer for Aberdeen Volunteer Fire Department and advocate for residential sprinklers.
“When we talk to individual builders one on one, most of them don?t have a problem with sprinklers,” Bender said. “But when we make a concerted effort, we hear the party line being passed down from the national organization.”
Developers often argue that working residential smoke detectors can provide many of the same benefits of sprinklers at a far lower cost, and encouraging more homes to have them would protect both new buildings and older ones.
Sprinklers are already mandatory in town houses and apartment buildings ? the result of a push in the late 1980s that faced similar opposition, Bender said, while Aberdeen and Havre de Grace have passed similar laws affecting new homes within city limits.
