LIHU‘E — The Kaua‘i Fire Commission on Monday adopted a position statement supporting the creation of a law that would require new one- and two-family homes to be fitted with automatic fire sprinklers. “In an effort to reduce the number
LIHU‘E — The Kaua‘i Fire Commission on Monday adopted a position statement supporting the creation of a law that would require new one- and two-family homes to be fitted with automatic fire sprinklers.
“In an effort to reduce the number of deaths from a national average of 3,000 citizens and 100 firefighters annually and to avert billions of dollars annually in property loss … we must include fire sprinklers as an integral part of a community’s fire protection,” Commissioner Guy Croydon read from the opening paragraph of the statement.
A resolution drafted to be introduced this year in the state Legislature says in 2007 approximately 84 percent of all civilian fire deaths resulted from home structure fires, and an average of eight people died each day in the U.S. because of fire-related injuries.
Homes equipped with sprinkler systems have on average a reduced property loss of 71 percent per fire, according to the draft resolution. The risk of dying in a fire equipped with sprinklers decreases by 81 percent.
Roughly 90 percent of the time fires are contained by just one sprinkler head, according to the draft resolution.
