Fire sprinkler issue still alive, Q-C builders still opposed

from qctimes.com


By Alma Gaul agaul@qctimes.com

The Illinois Fire Marshal shelved on Friday a plan that would have required fire sprinklers to be added to new single-family homes, but his is not the last word on the issue.

Rock Island building official Tom Ayers explained that while the fire marshal speaks to the fire code, Quad-City area updates to building codes still are pending.

The requirement that fire sprinklers be installed in new single-family homes was included in the 2009 International Residential Code, a model building code used by most communities throughout the country. But for various reasons, the requirement has not been in force around the Quad-Cities. Either exemptions were passed by state and local governments or governments did not adopt the updated code.

Exemptions are expiring, though, so the Illowa Building Officials Association — a coalition of Quad-City building and code enforcement officials — has been working to come up with options that it hopes will be acceptable to homebuilders who staunchly oppose the mandate on the basis of housing affordability, consumer choice and inherent property rights.

In fact, the first of 10,000 letters were sent Friday by a Quad-City builders coalition as part of an educational campaign opposing mandatory sprinklers, said Gene Holst, the CEO of the Quad-City Area Realtor Association, one of the coalition members.

Other members are the Quad-City Builders & Remodelers Association (formerly the Homebuilders), the Quad-City Area Realtor Association, the Quad-Cities Chamber of Commerce, Habitat for Humanity-Quad-Cities and the Student-Built Home Project.

The letters are going to homeowners and decision-makers on both sides of the Mississippi River, Holst said.

"We hope to make enough people aware that they can talk to elected officials locally so that when they adopt these resolutions to the code, it will be with exemptions to the mandate," he added. 

While stakeholders in both Iowa and Illinois have been waiting for their respective states to act on the issue, "I think it's going to be (decided) pretty much municipality by municipality," he said.

In addition to the mailing, other campaign efforts will include telephone polling and the creation of a website, he said.

The effort is being funded with $45,000 from the National Association of Realtors that was received about a month ago, $20,000 from the Iowa Association of Realtors and $9,000 from the Illinois association.

The local builders and remodelers association previously spent about $17,000 on a television advertising campaign to educate the public on its views, the group's executive officer has said.

The Illinois Association of Realtors had developed a six-page document of talking points for its members to use to persuade the fire marshal to shelve his plan.

Among the points are that hard-wired, interconnected, battery-backup smoke detectors required in today's homes are effective and that insurance credits do not offset the cost of a sprinkler system.

In the Quad-City area, Bob Buck, the president of the Illowa group of building officials, has said that the main reason for sprinklers in the code is safety. It is not to extinguish fires, but rather to extend the amount of time residents have to get out — and the time that firefighters have to get in and out — of a burning home.

Building materials are constantly changing, and testing agencies have found that the engineered lumber used in the floor I-joists of most new homes burns faster than the solid, sawed "legacy lumber" used in the past, Buck has said.

Results of an Underwriters Laboratory test showed the I-joists of floors collapsing in less than six minutes, he added.

So, earlier this year, Illowa came up with four alternatives to sprinklers that it believes still promote safe homes, including the use of fire-resistant I-joists, the use of "legacy" lumber and the installation of sheetrock to the ceiling of the basement to cover the floor assembly. 

There may even be more alternatives such as a post-applied protection, Ayers said. "Who knows what lies out there? People are creative.

"We can continue our dialogue with the goal of coming to a reasonable agreement." 

Updated: Fire sprinkler proposal for new homes withdrawn

from News-gazette.com

Fri, 08/02/2013 - 4:42pm | Tom Kacich

SPRINGFIELD — Intense political pressure, including a letter from Senate President John Cullerton, Friday prompted the state fire marshal to withdraw a plan to require fire sprinkler systems in some buildings, including all new single-family homes built in the state.

The sprinkler plan, which is part of the 2012 edition of the National Fire Protection Association's Life Safety Code and was up for adoption in Illinois, also would have required retrofitting some existing buildings with sprinklers, including high-rises and areas used for gatherings of 100 or more, including churches, dance halls, nightclubs and any place with festival seating.

The proposal, which was to go before the Legislature's Joint Commission on Administrative Rules either this month or in September, was opposed by the city of Chicago, the Illinois Municipal League, the Illinois Homebuilders Association, the Illinois Realtors Association and a number of other groups.

Sen. Dale Righter, R-Mattoon, said he believed "it was going down anyway" at JCAR, of which he is a member.

"It's just not the right thing to do. I understand the approach that many are taking with regard to fire safety, but any time that we're discussing a new rule or regulation and promoting it on a safety basis, there's always another side," said Righter. "To establish a policy that is going to make it at least somewhat if not significantly more expensive to build a new home in the state that is last in new housing starts just doesn't make sense. And form a philosophical point of view it's an overreach.

"New homeowners have the ability to decide if they want to put a sprinkler system in or not. And they ought to be able to make that decision themselves."

The issue was to have been considered next week at a meeting of the Champaign County Board's environment and land use committee, where a sample resolution opposing the adoption of the rule was on the agenda.

State Fire Marshal Larry Matkaitis said he pulled the proposal Friday because it needed "additional refinement."

"We have received an unprecedented amount of public input and suggestions through emails, letters and public meetings," said Matkaitis. "In the course of this process, it's become clear that any proposed state rule needs additional refinement.

"Therefore today I am officially withdrawing the proposed rule before the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules to take into account substantial public comment and carefully re-examine this issue."

A public hearing on the proposal, scheduled for next Tuesday at the fire marshal's office in Springfield, also was canceled.

Cullerton sent a letter to Matkaitis, dated July 31, that urged him to withdraw the proposal. Cullerton said it was "unnecessary, unreasonable and it represents an inappropriate extension of the rulemaking authority" granted to the fire marshal.

He said the proposal "would further burden an already fragile homebuilding industry" and said it "would have disastrous financial implications for homeowners, condo associations, religious organizations and businesses throughout the state of Illinois, who will ultimately pay the price for these costly and unnecessary installations."

In suggesting that Matkaitis pull the proposal, Cullerton urged him to "explore other options for how you might best fulfill your commitment to protecting the life and property of the citizens of Illinois from fire and other dangers while working within the framework provided by the Fire Investigation Act."

Two area state senators commended Matkaitis' decision. Sen. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, said it was "a victory for common sense," and Champaign Democrat Sen. Mike Frerichs, a former volunteer firefighter, commended him "for listening to many citizens' concerns and working to balance" public safety and economic concerns.

Not everyone, however, was opposed to the proposed rule.

The Northern Illinois Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board had noted that 91 Illinois communities, including Normal, already have fire sprinkler ordinances for single-family homes, and that California and Maryland have statewide requirements similar to those that had been suggested.

Tom Lia, the executive director of the board, also disputed estimates that sprinklers would add more than $10,000 to the cost of a 3,100 square foot house, saying that contractors "recently completed projected in Illinois and the cost averages $2.38 per sprinklered square foot."

That translates to about $7,400 for a 3,100-square-foot house that was fully sprinklered.

The fire marshal, in a graphics presentation made earlier this week, said that insurers offer 15 percent discounts for sprinklered homes.

And although the municipal league opposed the sprinkler requirement, Urbana Mayor Laurel Prussing said she thought the single-family home requirement "was an idea whose time has come."

"A fire is a terrible thing so I'm in favor of anything that's going to promote safety as long as it's reasonable," she said.

Champaign Mayor Don Gerard said the city council had not discussed the issue but was aware of it.

"I'm just happy that in my day job we're able to do these projects for safety," said Gerard, who is a facilities manager at the University of Illinois. "But I'm aware that it could be problematic to require this for new construction. Maybe this is something that could be incentivized instead of just mandated."

Raising awareness of push to install fire sprinklers

from bostonglobe

  JULY 31, 2013

THE FIRE last week in Somerville (“Fire damages 6 Somerville buildings,” Metro, July 26) highlights the importance of a nationwide debate as to the cost-effectiveness of states adopting the current International Code Council building requirement of installing residential fire sprinkler systems in all newly constructed homes.

Fortunately, only property was lost in this fire. The heroic efforts of the brave firefighters who responded to the scene and were able to control and eventually extinguish the flames ensured that people affected by the blaze did not lose their lives.

Too often this is not the case.

According to the National Fire Protection Association, in 2011 in the United States, residential fires were responsible for 85 percent of the total 3,005 civilian fire-related deaths.

There were an additional 15,635 civilian injuries and a total of $11.7 billion nationally in property loss in structure fires.

It is this cost with which we concern ourselves, and not the average of $1.61 per square foot that sprinkler systems cost builders to install.

Further, it is with the human cost in mind that we ask people to check the batteries in their smoke alarms, educate themselves on the current fire protection requirements in their own city and state, and learn how to protect themselves, their loved ones, and their community from the ravages of fire.

David A. LaFond

New England

regional manager

National Fire Sprinkler

Association

Holyoke