I can’t think of any other way to say it, especially when it’s been said this succinctly: New Home Sprinkler Requirement Improves Safety .19%.
About 3000 Americans die in house fires every year. Beginning in January 2011, a change to the International Residential Code (IRC) aims to reduce that number by making fire sprinklers mandatory in all new single-family residences. Sounds good, but home-building lobbies from Texas to Georgia have defied what they call an impractical, expensive mandate, convincing legislators to pass bills overriding the requirement.
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The fire survival rate in homes with working smoke detectors is 99.41 percent, according to the NFPA. Toss in a sprinkler, and the rate rises to 99.6 percent. “Consider how little it costs to install smoke alarms,” Orlowski says. “For the cost of the sprinklers, you’re really not getting a significant increase in safety.” But you are, for better or worse, buying a house that’s built to the latest code.
Why not let the buyers choose?
Rather than mandate a $5k increase in building costs, why not focus on the smoke detectors? Courteney Stuart at The Hook has been writing about the smoke detectors for years.
A seemingly-complete aggregation of all of her smoke detector stories is here.