Friday, September 23, 2011

Update Fire Code in Romeoville Requirments


Romeoville updates building fire code requirements

Updated: September 23, 2011 2:39PM


ROMEOVILLE — Village officials approved changes to their municipal building code after completing a year-long review.
The changes are part of a routine review officials make every three years to codes governing everything from plumbing to electrical requirements in both residential and commercial properties.
Development director Steve Rockwell said that a recent insurance audit showed the village losing points due to the required updates to the building code.
Rockwell noted that some areas of the code, such as the number of occupants a residential home can hold are made clearer under the new amendments.
“It’s always been kind of fuzzy and now it’s very clear,” said Rockwell.
Rockwell said that touring some of the 450 foreclosed homes in the village over the past few years have given the village’s building inspection department plenty of examples of electrical code violations though the updated requirements won’t preclude homeowners from performing their own minor electrical work.
“Homeowners can continue to put in ceiling fans, [and] electrical outlets,” he said, noting that a new electrical service panel will require a licensed electrician to perform the work.
Other changes for new home construction will include the need for sprinkler heads to be located in a home’s furnace and laundry rooms, as well as kitchen. Only older homes undergoing extensive remodeling will be required to install the new sprinkler systems in those areas.
“Those are traditionally areas where fires occur,” explained Fire Chief Kent Adams.
Village Administrator Steve Gulden said officials looked at ways to change the code with public safety in mind while also ensuring that regulations weren’t a burden for residents and business owners.
“It’s a fine balance between life safety and economic hardships,” said Gulden.
Mayor John Noak pointed out that the changes made to codes governing commercial sites like bars, and night clubs would not have to be made unless business owners planned a remodeling that would encompass more than 50 percent of an establishment. He also reiterated that the code changes would not equal a hike in permit costs.
In other business, the village approved an agreement with the Romeoville Professional Fire Fighters Union Local 4237.
Under the new agreement, two part-time firefighters will be promoted from the part-time ranks. The previous agreement required promotions to come from the department’s full-time pool of candidates.
Comment on this story
www.heraldnewsonline.com

Monday, September 19, 2011

From NFPA


09/19/2011

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8351b9f3453ef014e8bacf29b970d

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Solar Powered Home will have a Fire Sprinkler System


08/08/2011

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d8351b9f3453ef014e8a61d95b970d
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Solar Decathlon 2011 to require installation of sprinklers:

Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

Post a comment

Comments are moderated, and will not appear until the author has approved them.

From NFPA


09/14/2011

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

From NFPA


09/07/2011

Monday, September 5, 2011

From Taosnews.com


Debunking deadly myths: The truth about residential fire sprinklers

Print
Font Size:
Default font size
Larger font size
*
Posted: Sunday, June 12, 2011 6:00 pm
(ARA) - Some misconceptions are merely inconvenient. And some - like the many myths that surround the use of fire sprinklers in homes - can be deadly.
The federal government and more than 400 local governments - not to mention the national model building code authority, the International Code Council - have all recommended that all new homes offer this life safety system. In fact, you'd be hard pressed to find a business that is not protected by fire sprinklers. Yet misconceptions persist about the cost, convenience and effectiveness of home fire sprinklers, where 80 percent of all fire deaths occur.
"As a volunteer firefighter, I regularly see the devastation to families and their property due to home fires," says Eric Skare of Lakeville, Minn. Skare, who works for fire-safety systems maker Uponor, is a fire safety expert. "Many of these people live right in my own community, and their losses are seared in my memory."
Whether you're building a new home or renovating an existing one, it's important to know the truth behind some common fire sprinkler myths:
Myth: Installing home fire sprinklers is too expensive.
Reality: On average, installing a stand-alone fire sprinkler system - the kind that runs off a separate, dedicated system of water pipes - in a new construction home adds just 1 to 1.5 percent to the total building cost, according to the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition.
That expense drops even lower when adding a multipurpose system, which combines the cold-water plumbing and the fire sprinklers into a single, efficient system. Installation costs for a multipurpose system, like those made by Uponor, averages 57 cents less per square foot than traditional stand-alone systems - a savings of $1,368 for a 2,400-square-foot home, according to the Fire Protection Research Foundation. What's more, the foundation reports, home insurers give an average premium discount of 7 percent to homes with fire sprinkler systems.
Myth: Smoke alarms alone are enough protection against fires.
Reality: Smoke alarms can alert you to the presence of smoke, but do nothing to put out a fire. Home fire sprinkler systems act quickly to reduce heat, flames and smoke from a fire, giving you valuable time to get out safely. "Sprinklers put out most home fires in seconds, before the fire department arrives and before there's major damage," says Jayson Drake of Uponor North America.
Functioning smoke alarms reduce by 50 percent the risk of someone dying in a home fire. That risk decreases by 80 percent when sprinklers are present, according to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).
Myth: Fire sprinklers can cause excessive water damage to your home and belongings.
Reality: Fire sprinklers actually minimize damage. Fires cause more than $8.5 billion in direct property damage every year, according to the NFPA. Fire hoses discharge up to 250 gallons of water per minute into a burning home, causing significant damage as firefighters work to control and extinguish the fire. Sprinklers, use just 15 gallons of water per minute. Fire damage is far less in homes with sprinklers; a 15-year study in Scottsdale, Ariz. put the average loss for a sprinklered home at $2,166 compared to $45,019 for a home without sprinklers.
Myth: Home fire sprinkler systems look bad and will ruin the aesthetics of a house.
Reality: New home fire sprinkler systems are very unobtrusive, and can be mounted flush with walls or ceilings, or concealed behind decorative covers.
Myth: Fire sprinklers don't add value to a home and aren't worth the investment.
Reality: Forty-five percent of homeowners prefer a home with fire sprinklers, and nearly three in four think sprinklers increase a home's value, according to research by the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition. What's more, fire sprinklers can help lower your homeowners' insurance rates; most insurance companies offer discounts for homes that have the systems.
But the greatest value of fire sprinklers is their ability to help save lives and preserve a
family's home. In home fires where no sprinklers are present, families lose their homes and all their possessions, even if they escape unharmed themselves. When sprinklers are present, families survive - and so do their homes and possessions. Sprinklers reduce the average property loss by 71 percent, according to the NFPA.