Inspectors will check fire alarm later this week
Updated: Monday, 06 Feb 2012, 12:38 PM EST
Published : Sunday, 05 Feb 2012, 11:33 PM EST
Published : Sunday, 05 Feb 2012, 11:33 PM EST
Audrey Barnes / @AudreyBarnestv
FOX 5 Reporter
BY AUDREY BARNES/myfoxdc
PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, Md. - Inspectors from the Fire Marshal's Office will be back at the Spellman House Apartments in College Park later this week to check on the fire alarm. It malfunctioned Saturday, putting residents at risk during a fire.
What may have actually saved lives was the sprinkler system.
Prince George's County was the first in the country to require both sprinklers and fire alarms in all newly constructed residential homes. In three separate fires in just 20 hours this weekend, sprinklers controlled them, preventing more serious property damage and injuries.
Nowhere was that more critical, than at the Spellman House.Many of the residents are elderly and use wheelchairs and, evacuating them during an emergency can be challenging. Some Prince George's County police officers who got to a fire there Saturday before fire crews learned that first hand. What gave them time to evacuate more residents, was the fact that the apartment where the fire stared had a working sprinkler.
What may have actually saved lives was the sprinkler system.
Prince George's County was the first in the country to require both sprinklers and fire alarms in all newly constructed residential homes. In three separate fires in just 20 hours this weekend, sprinklers controlled them, preventing more serious property damage and injuries.
Nowhere was that more critical, than at the Spellman House.Many of the residents are elderly and use wheelchairs and, evacuating them during an emergency can be challenging. Some Prince George's County police officers who got to a fire there Saturday before fire crews learned that first hand. What gave them time to evacuate more residents, was the fact that the apartment where the fire stared had a working sprinkler.
"We immediately began evacuating the surrounding rooms in case the fire grew,"Cpl. Matthew Ling says.
A law requiring sprinklers and smoke alarms in residential homes in the county has been on the books for years.
" Since 1992, we have not had a fire fatality in any residential sprinklered home,"Prince George's County Fire and EMS Spokesman Mark Brady says.
Brady is so convinced about the effectiveness of sprinklers, he thinks residents of older homes should put them in too.
" They're limiting the amount of property damage and providing the occupants additional time to get out of the burning buildings safely," Brady says.
Brady says that property damage from a kitchen fire at a house in Clinton this weekend was limited to about $2,500 because the home had a sprinkler system. The sprinklers also activated during a fire at a commercial structure in Bowie Saturday, keeping damage there to about $5,000. No injuries were reported at any of the three sprinkler-controlled fires.
Read more: http://www.myfoxdc.com/dpp/news/seen_on_10_11/sprinklers-make-a-difference-in-3-pg-fires-020512#ixzz1lkdkhR7j
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