Nominations now being accepted for NFPA, HFSC Bringing Safety Home Award

NFPA-HFSC-LOGO-Headline

DEADLINE: April 3, 2020

March 25, 2020 – The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition (HFSC) are accepting nominations for their Bringing Safety Home Award, which recognizes outstanding efforts by a safety advocate who diligently promotes the importance of home fire sprinklers.

The Bringing Safety Home Award honors members of the fire service and other fire sprinkler advocates in North America who use HFSC educational material, NFPA data, and NFPA Fire Sprinkler Initiative resources to educate decision-makers on home fire sprinklers. These efforts are aimed at educating the public and policy makers to increase the use of home fire sprinklers in new homes. The award winner will receive a $1,000 grant to further fire sprinkler advocacy and educational efforts in their area.

“This year, many communities have successfully taken steps to get fire sprinklers in new homes,” says Lorraine Carli, NFPA’s vice president of Outreach and Advocacy and HFSC president. “We are progressively seeing more and more jurisdictions embracing this technology thanks to the dedication of fire sprinkler advocates who educate on the life-saving ability of fire sprinklers. These passionate safety advocates are effectively showing the life-saving benefits of fire sprinklers and they should be a necessity in all new homes to protect citizens and first responders alike.”

According to NFPA research, the risk of dying in a reported home fire is 85 percent lower if sprinklers are present.

Visit NFPA’s Fire Sprinkler Initiative website for more information. NFPA and HFSC are accepting nominations at Bringing Safety Home Award Form through April 3, 2020.

# # #

2023-06-22T14:45:04-05:00March 27th, 2020|Comments Off on Nominations now being accepted for NFPA, HFSC Bringing Safety Home Award

Countryside Fire Protection District Offers Sprinkler Education to Thousands of Students

This article is featured in NFPA’s Fire Sprinkler Initiative blog:
Countryside Fire Protection District has supported fire and life safety education since its 1959 inception. Its mission has helped instilled this practice: “The District dedicates its activities to the preservation of human life and the conservation of property. To this end, the District invests its personnel in the education of its public and the maintenance of a safe environment.”

Countryside FPD uses a fire sprinkler demonstration trailer to educate school-aged children about fire sprinklers.

Countryside FPD uses a fire sprinkler demonstration trailer to educate school-aged children about fire sprinklers.

Furthering its mission, the district’s fire chief, Jeff Steingart, created a full-time public education coordinator position with the fire prevention bureau in 2007. Hired by the district in 2000 as a firefighter/paramedic, Tony Rodkey filled the position and eventually increased staffing in the bureau. Among its accomplishments, Countryside FPD has assisted many state-level activities, which includes teaching and hosting a public fire and life safety instructor course. At a time when departments were cutting prevention and inspection programs, Rodkey bolstered staffing. He believes emergency response should not be our first line of defense. Rather, emergency response is the only option after prevention and education fail. Reducing risk via education to the community, according to him, is paramount in saving lives and protecting property. Home fire sprinklers are an important part of this model.

Read the entire article about the Countryside Fire Protection District’s home fire sprinkler education efforts.

2023-10-05T11:24:09-05:00January 20th, 2017|0 Comments

Fire Sprinkler Saves Evanston High-Rise Residents, Yet Again, in 2016

Photo courtesy of Google Maps Street View.

The Mather in Evanston (photo courtesy of Google Maps Street View)

On December 20, a single fire sprinkler extinguished a fire after a stovetop burner was left on and ignited nearby boxes of food in a residence at The Mather, a 10-story senior living facility in Evanston. According to fire officials, no one was injured and over $150,000 in damage was prevented thanks to the quick action of the fire sprinkler.

The sprinkler save marks the second time this year that fire sprinklers prevented major fires at residential high-rises in Evanston. In March, a single fire sprinkler extinguished a kitchen fire in an apartment unit of the 11-story Housing Authority of Cook County’s Perlman Apartments high-rise. The building recently had been retrofitted with fire sprinklers in November 2015.

When the Mather was built in the late 2000s, former Evanston fire officials Michael Rons (plan reviewer), Tom Janetske (fire marshal) and Alan Berkowsky (fire chief) oversaw the fire safety system installations, including the fire sprinklers, which were installed by USA Fire Protection from Lake Forest.

“Both of the buildings where the fire sprinkler saves occurred this year have senior residents that are at high risk in the event of fires, according to the NFPA. Also, there is the added risk due to limited escape routes in high-rises,” says Evanston Fire Captain John Roche. “In each case, a single fire sprinkler averted a potentially serious incident.”

“By following national model codes that require fire sprinkler protection in high-rises, Evanston city officials are ensuring the safety of high-rise residents. That gives the city a huge life safety advantage over the city of Chicago, which unfortunately does not require all high-rises to be sprinklered,” says Tom Lia, executive director of the nonprofit Northern Illinois Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board.

 

2023-10-05T11:29:33-05:00December 21st, 2016|0 Comments

Video: Fire Sprinklers Save Lives in High-Rises

Have you ever stopped to think about how safe a residential high-rise building would be in the event of a fire? If it doesn’t include fire sprinklers, the answer is simple: it’s not safe enough.

Residents of high-rises without fire sprinkler systems are much more likely to die in a fire, and those fortunate enough to escape could still face injury and significant property losses. The National Fire Protection Association reported that from 2007-2011, high-rise fires caused nearly $219 million in property damage each year.

Why even risk the potential of such loss when a fire sprinkler system can easily be retrofitted to any building

Fire sprinklers are easier to install in existing high-rises than most people think. The infrastructure is already in place, making fire sprinklers a cost-effective solution for fire safety.

If a fire starts, the heat from the fire will activate only the sprinkler closest to the fire, limiting damage to a single area and preventing the release of deadly smoke and toxins. Fire sprinklers are the only technology that proactively control or extinguish a fire, prevent it from spreading, and provide time for residents to escape.

Also, owners and residents of high-rises protected with fire sprinklers receive discounts on their fire insurance.

View the video and more information at HighRiseLifeSafety.com.

 

2023-10-05T11:30:15-05:00March 10th, 2016|0 Comments
Go to Top