Video Helps Educate the Public About Residential Sprinklers

Imagine waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of a smoke alarm. How would you react? How fast could you move? How would you save your family? Visitors to the new website designed by the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition (HFSC), can experience that frightening event in a dramatic six-minute movie that traces the course of a home fire.

In the movie, a fire starts in the living room during the night while the family is sleeping. One minute later, the smoke alarm activates. The homeowner wakes up, doesn't smell smoke until going down the stairs, then reaches the first floor to see smoke in the living room and the curtains on fire. Heat activates the fire sprinkler and the fire is controlled about two minutes after it starts.

Then, the clock displayed at the top of the screen stops and reverses to when the smoke alarm activates. The movie replays the same home fire without sprinkler protection. In less than five minutes, the fire spreads until it reaches "flashover" and the entire living room is engulfed in flames, before firefighters arrive at the scene.

According HFSC chair Gary Keith, National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), Quincy, Mass., the movie was developed to make fire timeline information more realistic. "For years, we've used charts and data to educate people about how quickly a house fire spreads. The photos and sound effects used in this presentation bring that information to life," Keith said.

The movie also shows how dark and deadly the smoke in a house fire can be. "We want viewers to understand that it is the smoke that kills," Keith said. "Even though the fire started in the living room, thick poisonous smoke spreads throughout the house. You can't see anything when the house is filled with smoke. While the clock is ticking and the fire spreads, people in the house are blinded by smoke while they try to escape. The best way to control the development of smoke is to control the development of fire with a sprinkler."

Information from "The Scottsdale Report" is also used in the movie. The report is an analysis of fire records during the first ten years the City of Scottsdale, Ariz., had an ordinance requiring the installation of residential fire sprinklers in all new homes. This information compares the average amount of water used by fire sprinklers to the amount used with fire fighter hoses. It also compares average fire loss in a home protected by fire sprinklers to an unprotected home.

While developing the movie, the HFSC sent it to various members of the fire service throughout the country for feedback. Keith said it was very well received. "Members of fire service were anxious for us to post it on the web site so they could use it for community education," Keith added.

Anyone who visits the HFSC website at www.homefiresprinkler.org can download the timeline movie to view when they are not on the Internet and to use for presentations. Viewers do need the "Flash" plug-in, which is also available to download on the website.

Reprinted with permission from Sprinkler Age, the official publication of the American Fire Sprinkler Association, Volume 20, Number 8, August 2001. Copyright 2001, all rights reserved.

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