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SALT LAKE CITY -- A home improvement expert demonstrated Thursday what a difference an overhead home sprinkler system can make in case of a house fire.
Ron Hazelton said the number of house fires nationwide usually spikes during the winter months. In many cases, residents are unprepared.
Hazelton showed a fire purposely set in two identically furnished living rooms at a Lake Buena Vista, Fla. fire station. One room featured a single overhead sprinkler and smoke alarm, the other a smoke alarm only.
In the room with the sprinkler, the fire began and the sprinkler activated 14 seconds later. The fire was contained with 20 seconds and damage was minimal.
In the other room, most items in the room were burning within a minute. Within a minute and a half the room was fully engulfed in flames.
Hazelton said overhead sprinkler technology is not new and has proven itself on the commercial side. "What I'm trying to do is get the word out that they're just as effective in a home, even more important perhaps because more than 80 percent of the people who die in fires die in home fires," he said.
Hazelton is a spokesperson for several fire safety organizations that shared the following information:
- Firefighters respond to more than 1.3 million fires a year, including more than 325,000 house fires
- 3,000 people die in fires every year with thousands more injured
- Most common causes of home fires: stove fires, overloaded wiring, electrical appliance short-circuits, space heaters, faulty circuit breakers
- Home fire sprinkler systems reduce the risk of property loss and home insurance rates
- 90% of house fires can be contained by the action of one fire sprinkler
