Advocacy must be strengthened for the enforcement of codes and the installation of home fire sprinklers.
The term “fire prevention,” as used here, means preventing accidental fires from starting and, when they do start, minimizing their growth or extinguish them prior to human intervention. A successful effort in fire prevention will mean fewer fire responses by firefighters because of a reduction in fires, and less dangerous working conditions on the fire ground as a result of smaller, contained fires. With fewer fire responses and smaller, contained fires, and a better protected public, it is clear that there will be fewer firefighter injuries and fatalities – which is the goal of our overall efforts. The 15th Initiative asks us to advocate for stronger codes and laws which will decrease the number and severity of structural and residential fires to keep our firefighters out of harm’s way.
Initiative 15 Resources
Initiative 15 Research
- Leading and Living Life Safety Lessons Learned
- Lessons Learned From Unsatisfactory Sprinkler Performance: An Update on Trends and a Root Cause Discussion from the Investigating Engineer’s Perspective
- Residential Fire Sprinkler Systems: What do you know?
- Fire Sprinklers Save Lives–And Firefighters
- Fire Sprinklers
Latest Initiative 15 News
- Fire Organizations Applaud Florida Governor Scott for Veto HB 653 – HB 653 would have allowed high–rise buildings in Florida without adequate fire and life safety systems to forego the retrofit of fire sprinklers and/or engineered life safety systems in these buildings that are currently required to come into compliance by 2020.
- Common Voices, National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and Phoenix Society for Burn Survivors Champion Fire Sprinklers After New Year’s Day Fires in Massachusetts – On New Year’s Day morning two apartment fires raged in Massachusetts. Fire ripped through a Holyoke apartment building claiming the lives of three residents and displaced over 50 others.
- Call to Action for Holiday Safety Following Tragic Maryland Fire – Sher Grogg talks about how she lost her brother, sister-in-law, and their four grandchildren in a devastating Christmas tree fire in 2015. She offers holiday safety tips so that other families do not have to experience this tragedy.
- NFFF, Kidde and BGE help Anne Arundel and Prince George’s County Fire Departments with new 10-year smoke alarms for free distribution programs – Not only do smoke alarms provide an early warning to residents of a fire in their home, they also allow for a faster notification to the fire department.
- Help us save Maryland lives! NOW! – Some Maryland lawmakers want to gut the state’s mandatory residential sprinkler law. It’s an enormous step backwards that will cost lives. As firefighters, we need to let the delegates and senators know what we know about sprinklers. They need to understand that a vote for House Bill 19 means people will be injured and die in homes that should have been sprinklered. Watch this video and listen to the message from Sher Grogg, whose brother, sister-in-law, three nieces and a nephew died a year ago in a Maryland house fire.
» Sounding-off About Saving Lives - Sounding-off About Saving Lives – Currently, only Maryland and California have state-wide sprinkler mandates in new one and two-family homes. But a bill introduced in Maryland to repeal the law in 2016 may gain traction. If passed, other states could refrain from enacting sprinkler laws.
- Fire Sprinkler Incentive Act Is Filed in 114th Congress – On September 22nd, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Sen. Tom Carper (D-Delaware) filed S. 2068 and Rep. Tom Reed (R- New York) and Rep. Jim Langevin (D-Rhode Island) introduced H.R. 3591, the companion house legislation to encourage building owners to invest in life-saving fire safety upgrades.
- NFFF New Goals Campaign: Reducing Fire Occurrences – The Fire Service must do a better job of educating the public of the risks they face as a result of fire. Equally important is educating firefighters about the critical importance of prevention through intervention.
- Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition Board Welcomes National Fallen Firefighters Foundation and National Volunteer Fire Council – The NFFF works to honor and support the families of fallen firefighters, and to reduce firefighter injuries and fatalities. Fire sprinkler advocacy is among the NFFF’s Firefighter Life Safety Initiatives.
- Texas Fire Service Supports Representative Galindo’s Residential High-Rise Fire Sprinkler Bill – The bill would require residential high‐rise buildings in Texas to feature smoke detectors, fire safety information and fire sprinklers by Sept. 1, 2021. The fire service organizations represented vow to stand with Rep. Galindo to reduce fire injuries and deaths as the final legislation is debated in Texas.
