NFPA Journal - July/August 2013 - (Page 78)

>> FIREANALYSIS+ RESEARCH NFPA RESEARCH REPORTS IN BRIEF U.S. Experience with Sprinklers John R. hALL, JR. Automatic sprinklers are highly effective and reliable elements of total system designs for fire protection in buildings. According to the 2009 American Housing Survey, 4.6 percent of occupied homes, including multiunits, had sprinklers in 2009, up from 3.9 percent in 2007, and 18.5 percent of occupied homes built in the previous four years had sprinklers. Of reported structure fires between 2007 and 2011, an estimated 10 percent showed sprinklers present. Sprinklers were present in 57 percent of reported fires in health care properties. In roughly half or more of reported structure fires, 47 percent of high-rise apartment buildings, 48 percent of manufacturing facilities, 51 percent of passenger terminals, 52 percent of hotels and motels, 53 percent of prisons and jails, 53 percent of dormitories and barracks, and 63 percent of high-rise office buildings had sprinklers. In every other property use, sprinklers were not present in more than half of all reported fires. Sprinklers are still rare in educational properties, which accounted for 36 percent of fires; stores and offices, which accounted for 24 percent; public assembly properties, which accounted for 23 percent; and homes, which accounted for 6 percent, but where most fire deaths occur. There is considerable potential for expanded use of sprinklers to reduce the loss of life and property to fire. Sprinklers operated in 91 percent of all reported structure fires large NOVEMBER 14-16, 2013 SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH Make your home and your community safer from wildfire! enough to activate sprinklers, excluding buildings under construction and buildings without sprinklers in the fire area. When sprinklers operated, they were effective 96 percent of the time, resulting in a combined performance of operating effectively in 87 percent of reported fires where sprinklers were present in the fire area and the fire was large enough to activate them. The more widely used wet-pipe sprinklers operated effectively 89 percent of the time, while dry-pipe sprinklers operated effectively in 76 percent of cases. When sprinklers fail to operate, the reason most often given—that is, in 64 percent of failures—was that the systems had been shut off before the fire began, as may occur in the course of routine inspection or maintenance. Other leading reasons included manual intervention that defeated the system, lack of maintenance, and inappropriate system for the type of fire. Only 7 percent of sprinkler failures were attributed to component damage. When sprinklers operate but are ineffective, the reason usually had to do with an insufficient amount of water applied to the fire, either because water did not reach the fire, as happened in 44 percent of the cases of ineffective performance, or because not enough water was released, as happened in 30 percent of the cases of ineffective performance. Other leading reasons were system component damage, manual intervention that defeated the system, lack of maintenance, and inappropriate system for the type of fire. Fireworks John R. hALL, JR. Attend the 2013 Backyards & Beyond Wildland Fire Education Conference www.nfpa.org/backyardsandbeyond 78 NFPA JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST 2013 In 2011, 9,600 fireworks-related injuries were treated in U.S. hospital emergency rooms. Three of five fireworks injuries in 2011 were to the hand or finger, the leg, and the arm, shoulder, or wrist. Most of the rest were to parts of the head, including the eye. http://www.nfpa.org/backyardsandbeyond http://www.nfpa.org/backyardsandbeyond

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - July/August 2013

NFPA Journal - July/August 2013
Contents
First Word
In a Flash
Perspectives
Firewatch
Research
Heads Up
Structural Ops
In Compliance
Buzzwords
Outreach
Electrical Safety
Wildfire Watch
Loud + Clear
Allied in Safety
Front Burner
Firefighter Fatalities in the United States, 2012
Fire Analysis + Research
Section Spotlight
What’s Hot
Looking Back

NFPA Journal - July/August 2013

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