8 out of 10 fire deaths occur in the home. An average of 367,000 home fires occur each year, killing 2,500 people. Home fire sprinklers are a proven way to protect lives and property against fires at home.
Fires act fast, they can go from a small blaze to total destruction in as little as 3 minutes. Sprinklers can help to suppress or extinguish flames allowing for you and your family more time to escape.
Home fire sprinklers respond quickly and effectively to the presence of a nearby fire. When sprinklers are present, they save lives. A sprinkler system is relatively inexpensive to maintain. You will want to do a water sprinkler flow test once a year or have a contractor perform the test for you.
Below are 10 facts that you should know:
- If you have reported a fire in your home, the risk of death decreases by about 80% when sprinklers are present.
- The cost of installing home fire sprinklers averages $1.35 per sprinklered square foot for new construction.
- People in homes with sprinklers are protected against significant property loss—sprinklers reduce the average property loss by about 71% per fire.
- Home sprinkler systems respond quickly to reduce the heat, flames, and smoke from a fire, giving families valuable time to get to safety.
- Property is protected from destruction—meaning that families who survive a fire will also have a place to live and enough resources to continue living their lives as they did before.
- Typically, only the sprinkler closest to the fire will activate, spraying water directly on the fire.
- Roughly 85% of the time, just one sprinkler operates.
- Each individual sprinkler is designed and calibrated to go off when it senses a significant heat change.
- Cigar smoke and burned toast cannot cause a sprinkler to operate. Only the high temperature that results from a fire will activate the sprinkler.
- It is extremely rare for sprinklers to operate accidentally. In a typical home, water damage will be considerably less from unwanted sprinkler discharges than from other plumbing mishaps.
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