Fire Sprinklers Protect Your Home and Your Family

BENEFITS OF FIRE SPRINKLERS

Fire sprinklers offer the highest degree of fire protection and are critical in saving lives and property. While fire sprinklers save thousands of properties throughout the country in a year, they are not as common in residential buildings as they are in commercial. This is due to there being several myths surrounding fire sprinklers that have been perpetuated in television and film.

MYTH #1 DO FIRE SPRINKLERS REALLY REACT TO SMOKE?

Contrary to popular belief, fire sprinklers do not react to smoke. Heat will activate a fire sprinkler. For residential sprinkler heads to activate it needs to reach 155 degrees Fahrenheit.

MYTH #2 DO ALL FIRE SPRINKLERS REACT AT ONCE?

It is a common trope in Hollywood that sprinklers all go off at once. Usually the hero, in order to set off a diversion, will activate a building’s sprinkler system and cause all the heads to activate. This plot device has perpetuated the myth that all sprinklers react when a system trips. However, in 90% of cases only one sprinkler head will activate and extinguish or contain the fire.

FIRE SPRINKLERS IN THE HOME

Many of the above myths have played their part in keeping the public misinformed of how fire sprinklers operate. Not only are fire sprinklers the most proactive way of combatting home fires, but they are affordable as well; indeed, for a majority of the country, fire sprinklers are between 1-2% of the total project cost in new construction, with some coming in less than 1%, which totals out to be around the same cost as marble counter tops in a home.