Unfortunately Delaware has now suffered 18 fire fatalities this year. The 17th occurred in Kent County, while No. 18 was in New Castle County. Both fires are still under investigation by the state fire marshal.
All the fatalities occurred in unsprinklered occupancies. None of the occupancies were required to have a sprinkler system due to their age. However, please know that there have been at least four fires in residential structures throughout Delaware that were controlled by sprinkler systems that have occurred since August through last week. Fires in Newark, Rehoboth, Bear and Dover all were controlled by a sprinkler system and resulted in reduced damages. At the Dover fire, the slider doors were still intact because the sprinkler system held the fire and heat in check and minimized damages to the building. From what I was told, firefighters did not have to apply any water from fire hoses on this fire because of the effectiveness of the sprinkler system.
A sad counterpoint to those that argue smoke alarms are enough to protect people, the 16th fire fatality in Delaware occurred in Milford in a dwelling that had activated, properly working smoke alarms. In all my years in the fire service, I have yet to see a smoke alarm or smoke detector flow any water to control or extinguish a fire.
Do not think for one second that the economic problems being endured have slowed down residential development in Delaware. And these are not affordable housing developments. Unfortunately, the Delaware Preliminary Land Use Service does not consider what the overwhelming growth does to Delaware emergency services providers. The fire and emergency medical services are already battling recruitment, retention and call volume challenges. But these topics never come up at state land-use reviews. Please correct me, but I doubt these conversations take place at local planning and zoning meetings either. If they do, legislators should realize that building with residential fire sprinkler systems will address many concerns.
On a final note, take a few minutes to look at the video presented by the Northern Illinois Fire Sprinkler Advisory Bureau – youtube.com/watch?v=LKtrFx62x3k. Have a safe holiday season.
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