Communities adopt sprinkler ordinances
Fremont, California, has retained the retrofit requirements for apartment buildings in its residential sprinkler ordinance. Owners of existing apartment buildings with more than 10 units and interior corridors must install sprinklers in the common areas and one sprinkler inside each apartment`s entryway.
Although Fire Chief Dan Lydon had advocated residential sprinklers before the 1995 apartment fire that had left 400 people homeless and had necessitated firefighters` rescuing 18 people from the second story, it was this fire that served to reinforce the need for a retrofit ordinance to city officials. The retrofit ordinance has been in effect since December 1997. Apartment owners sued to get the ordinance overturned on the grounds that the city did not demonstrate its need. The city council, however, voted unanimously to keep it as part of the city`s fire code.
In Orlando, Florida, the city council adopted an ordinance that will require sprinklers in every structure in the city`s new Lake Nona development, which is predicted to have 13,000 new homes within a 29-square-mile area within five years.
Chief Donald Harkins had met with the developer early in the planning stage to discuss the projected need for fire and EMS services. Sprinklers were a key factor in determining the future need for fire stations and personnel. The fire department had predicted the need for seven additional fire stations, each with an engine company and some with ladder companies, if the development were built under the existing building code requirements. If, however, sprinklers were installed in all structures, the projections dropped to three stations with suppression companies and possibly two additional stations with only EMS units.
Reference: OLS Newsletter, Residential Fire Safety Institute (14:7, 8), July/August, 1999, 3.
