WORCESTER, Mass. - Fire service leaders and fire protection experts teamed up in Worcester for a live-fire demonstration to show how home fire sprinklers contain and even extinguish fires to protect people and property.
What You Need To Know
- A burn demonstration in Worcester highlighted the importance of sprinkler systems in residences
- Representatives from the Worcester Fire Department, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Society of Fire Protection Engineers – New England Chapter, Department of Fire Services, National Fire Sprinkler Association, and National Fire Protection Association were in attendance
- In Massachusetts 40 people died in residential fires in 20-24, none were protected by home fire sprinklers, according to the MA Department of Fire Services
The message behind Wednesday's live burn demonstration was, ‘Sprinklers buy time. Time buys life.’”
Two identical rooms and fires highlighting the difference a sprinkler system can make.
“Within 15 seconds, the smoke detector went off from when we saw first flame," Paul Zbikowski said. "And then the sprinkler put the fire out. It controlled the fire. And that's what we wanted to do. We want it to control the fire, give people time to get out of the fire.”
At the burn demonstration in Worcester’s Institute Park, the room with no sprinkler system completely burned in about 3 minutes and 45 seconds. Paul Zbikowski of the National Fire Sprinkler Association said it’s a faster time than even the best firefighters in the country can respond in.
“We know that the best times in the country, the fire department arrives on scene in four minutes," Zbikowski said. "Now, that's the time that they arrive on scene. Now they're going to get off the truck, get out, get the line, charge and get out, get into the house to get to the fire. So, five minutes, six minutes before they get the water on the fire, the fire's already flashed over in that room.”
“This demonstration really showed the impact of sprinklers," Milosh Puchovsky said, "and the effect they have on fire and really improving life safety and property protection and dwellings.”
WPI Professor Milosh Puchovsky said there’s data to prove sprinkler systems help save lives.
“If you look at the statistics long term, there's really no fatality in a fully sprinkler building or that system is properly designed and maintained," Puchovsky said. "So, the record of success with sprinklers and how they perform is very well, very well documented.”
And while the NFSA pushes for legislation to require sprinklers in new homes as they’re built, Zbikowski said he has a simple question when it comes to the cost.
“What's one life worth? What's one life worth? Put a number on it," Zbikowski said. "You ask people to put a number on it, and they just, they don't. They clam up. So put a number on one life, if it's your family.”
