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Saturday, April 3, 2010

Requiring sprinklers in new homes can save lives
Gov. Christie has delayed implementation of a rule requiring new homes to have sprinkler systems in New Jersey. (ELIZABETH ROBERTSON / Staff Photographer)

 

Home builders in Pennsylvania will gladly offer to sell buyers thousands of dollars in upgrades in kitchen counters, carpets, and the like. But they’ve gone to court to block a new requirement that lifesaving fire sprinklers be built into the price of every home constructed after January.
 
The builders’ trade group is decrying the cost of adding sprinkler systems to one- and two-family homes. That’s the requirement being phased in next year, as a result of the state’s adopting updated national building standards.
 
A Commonwealth Court bid for an injunction failed in March, but builders are continuing to lobby to scrap the mandate in favor of a requirement that sprinklers be offered only as an option.
 
New Jersey is making the move to add sprinklers, too. But the Christie administration temporarily halted the rule as part of its overall review of regulations.
 
The Pennsylvania Builders Association contends that the sprinkler and other safety mandates in the updated building code threaten to “suffocate our economy” by boosting home prices, according to Joseph Mackey, an East Stroudsburg builder who heads the trade group.
 
But there’s a more compelling case being made by firefighters, code-enforcement experts, and fire-prevention industry officials, that sprinklers are both affordable and one of the smartest safety investments that a homeowner could make.
 
The number of fire deaths has plummeted in communities such as Scottsdale, Ariz., and Prince George’s County, Md., where residential sprinklers have been required. Firefighters also point out that these sprinklers safeguard them when they are battling blazes in newer homes built with lightweight materials that burn faster.
 
These systems not only save lives, at an increase in a home’s price of only about 1 percent, but they also qualify homeowners for annual insurance discounts because sprinklers minimize property damage in a fire.
 
The benefits would seem to outweigh the cost, even if the builders’ much higher estimate of around 3 percent of a home price proves to be more accurate.
 
Indeed, the contention that buyers won’t make new-home purchases due to the added cost of these fire-safety systems is reminiscent of the auto-industry debates over seat belts and air bags.
 
It’s significant that New Jersey builders have not mounted a similar campaign to fight that state’s sprinkler mandate.
 
The opening legal round went to the Rendell administration officials at the Department of Labor and Industry who promulgated the fire-sprinkler rule.
 
In rejecting the builders’ plea for an injunction, Commonwealth Court Judge Johnny J. Butler noted that the building code update had been in the works for more than a year, that it had been given a careful review by state officials who had the authority to reject the sprinkler mandate, and that the builder trade group had presented input at various stages.
 
That sounds like the builders were given a fair hearing, but fire-safety concerns legitimately prevailed.
Posted by Inquirer Editorial Board @ 2:00 AM  Permalink | 1 comment
Comments   
  • 0 like this / 0 don't   •   Posted 3:49 PM, 04/05/2010
    Deaths from home fires have been plummeting everywhere that smoke detectors have been made mandatory. A smoke detector costs about $10. An entire home can be done next to nothing. The real reason for the push for expensive fire sprinkler is the fire sprinkler equipment manufacturers who stand to reap $billions from this. They corrupted the process to get the mandate included in the building code assuming (mostly correctly) that politicians wouldn’t have the stomach to vote against “saving lives”, even though it is far from proven that they do so in homes equipped with working smoke detectors. Follow the money.
    — Andrew Terhune


1 comments
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