The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) and officials from each of Massachusetts’ fire service organizations will conduct a live “side-by-side” fire demonstration at the National Fire Protection Association Headquarters at 1 Batterymarch Park, Quincy, Massachusetts, Thursday, November 3rd at 2:00 p.m., to call attention to what they are saying is a dangerous decision by the Massachusetts Board of Building Regulations and Standards (BBRS) to remove the provision for fire sprinklers in new homes from the recent adoption of the building code for the state.
James M. Shannon, president of the National Fire Protection Association, representatives from Massachusetts fire service associations including the Fire Chiefs Association of Massachusetts, Fire Prevention Association of Massachusetts, Massachusetts Call/Volunteer Firefighters Association, and Professional Firefighters of Massachusetts will be in attendance.
During the demonstration, firefighters will set on fire two identical rooms, one of which will be equipped with a home sprinkler and one which will not include a sprinkler. The demonstration graphically shows how sprinklers effectively control or in some cases extinguish a home fire, and how lack of a sprinkler allows the room to go to flashover, the point in which everything burns.
Every national model code includes the requirement for fire sprinklers in new one- and two-family homes. The BBRS promulgated a building code for the Commonwealth and omitted the provision to require home fire sprinklers in new construction which equates to allowing substandard housing to be built.
To learn more about the code action in Massachusetts, go to www.firesprinklersma.org
