NFPA Journal - Summer 2021 - 38

IN 2019, ACCORDING to NFPA data,
2,390 people died in fires in one- and
two-family homes in the US. In 1980,
that figure was an estimated 3,417. While
that progress is laudable, it doesn't tell
the whole story-and the more complete
view is troubling.
In 1980, there were 7.1 deaths per
1,000 fires in one- and two-family
homes. In 2019, that figure had actuH I S T O R I C A C C O M P L I S H M E N T,
MODERN CHALLENGE

Home Fires

shared with his wife was equipped with
working smoke alarms, but it did not
include fire sprinklers, which may have
been able to control the fire long enough
to allow Cope to escape. " The flames
were getting bigger and bigger by the
moment, " a neighbor, describing the
Natick fire, told a local television station. " I had never seen anything like it,
the way it grew and how big it got. " The
cause of the fire remains
under investigation.
Typically, about 80 percent of civilian fire deaths
in the US each year occur
in homes, and most of
those occur in one- and
two-family homes. Generally, new apartment
buildings, as well as
many existing apartment
buildings, require fire
sprinklers; in most jurisdictions, one- and two-family homes do
not. NFPA and other safety organizations have advocated for years for the
inclusion of sprinklers in new construction of one- and two-family homes, an
especially urgent goal considering the
speed with which newer homes can
burn.
Despite those proven concerns, home
sprinkler requirements have been routinely opposed by homebuilder and real
estate interests that claim, erroneously,
that the sprinklers are prohibitively
expensive to install and will hurt the
sale of new homes. In fact, in new construction, sprinklers can be added for
about $1.30 per installed square foot.
With those sprinklers, the risk of dying
in a reported home fire is reduced by
85 percent.
As NFPA and its allies continue to
fight the home fire problem, sprinkler
requirements continue to offer an effective, affordable solution-but one that
is often frustratingly just out of reach.
For Lorraine Carli, NFPA vice president of Outreach and Advocacy and
president of the Home Fire Sprinkler
Coalition (HFSC), a sprinkler education
group, the home fire problem could
be dramatically improved by taking a
single critically important step. " We
could significantly reduce the home fire
problem for decades to come if all new
one- and two-family homes were built
with sprinklers, as dictated in every
building code, " she said.

80 percent of civilian
fire deaths in the
US occur in homes,
and most of those
occur in one- and
two-family homes.

ally increased, to nine deaths per 1,000
fires-meaning if you experienced a fire
in a one- or two-family home, you stood
a significantly greater chance of dying in
it than you did 40 years ago.
The reasons for that are many, including an aging population and more
people living in poverty. But it also has
to do with how we build those one- and
two-family homes, and how we furnish
them. And it has to do with special
interests that are opposed to proven
technology in those homes that can help
families survive a fire.
Conventional wisdom holds that
newer homes don't burn, or that they
face a significantly lower risk of burning
than older homes. But extensive testing
has demonstrated that newer homes not
only burn readily, but when they're built
with lightweight trusses and engineered
lumber components, they can burn and
fail in a fraction of the time it takes for
homes built with dimensional lumber.
Testing has also shown that when newer
homes are filled with modern furnishings, with their high concentrations of
combustible foams and particle board,
the time to flashover in a home fire
can be just a few minutes, compared
to nearly 30 minutes in homes with
" legacy " furniture crafted with hardwoods and natural fabrics. Additionally,
the absence of fire sprinklers in newer
homes ensures fires grow unimpeded.
According to the Natick Fire Department, the home that Joel David Cope

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NFPA Journal - Summer 2021

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