QUINCY, MA April 26, 2022 – In every community, home fires are a severe threat to residents as well as responding firefighters. While homes have been the central fire challenge for decades, today this problem is intensified by the fact that unprotected home fires become deadly in just two minutes or less. To confront this stubborn public safety burden, fire departments and safety advocates across North America will team up May 15-21 for Home Fire Sprinkler Week.
In its fifth year, the Week is co-hosted by the Fire Sprinkler Initiative project of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition (HFSC). The event focuses on the home fire problem and the need for better understanding of the life safety benefits of installed home fire sprinklers. The free, online digital messaging and local outreach activities will help departments of any size and type achieve their community risk reduction goals through local education and outreach.
According to NFPA, more than three-quarters of all civilian fire deaths occur in home fires. The vast majority of these fatal fires are preventable and their causes are largely the same as they have been for many years. Fire safety advocates work hard to educate about home fire dangers, but every fire cannot be prevented.
“When things go wrong and a fire starts, home fire sprinklers work automatically and very effectively,” says Lorraine Carli, NFPA vice president of Outreach and Advocacy and president of the HFSC. “Mistakes happen, but the real transgression is that approximately one million new homes will be built this year and only a fraction of them will be protected with the proven technology that would prevent injuries, save lives and protect property.”
Contributing to this is the common fallacy that new homes don’t burn. “They certainly do,” Carli says. Today, new homes are most commonly built with unprotected lightweight wood construction, and designed with large, open spaces. Homes are filled with synthetic furnishings that burn hotter and faster than natural materials producing toxic smoke. Regardless of age, home fires now burn faster than ever and become deadly so quickly.
“The simple answer is to install fire sprinklers in new home construction,” Carli explains. “What thwarts progress are lacking public awareness, rampant myths and the influence of special interests.” This year’s Home Fire Sprinkler Week responds with a range of powerful educational tools to address those, including an exciting new virtual reality resource that helps stakeholders, homebuilders, and consumers see and believe how important fire sprinkler protection is.
HFSC’s virtual reality (VR) videos were created from actual home fire flashover and fire sprinkler activation footage. Unlike animated VR films, the footage was shot live as the fires burned. The result is memorable. With user-controlled 360-degree, full-room views, viewers experience the fires as if they were actually in the room, seeing the fires and sprinkler activation from any angle. The VR videos can be watched with 3D glasses or headsets for an immersive experience as well as in 2D on HFSC’s website.
A dedicated Home Fire Sprinkler Week Website also includes other videos, animations, graphic art and messaging that corresponds to daily themes. All the resources are free and can be selected at will and customized. With a couple of clicks, the turnkey resources ca