All across the nation, more and more states are requiring fire sprinklers to be established in homes, residential areas, and even commercial sites. The requirement is a simple thing to think about. Fire sprinklers have been proven to save people’s lives and even control or extinguish a fire before fire fighters even arrive on the scene. So it makes sense to be requiring them in building codes.
However, many of these ordinances also provide a grandfather clause for homes, apartments, motels, and other structures that were built before the 1970s. This clause often prevents them from requiring fire sprinklers like everyone else. But in most cases, these are the types of homes that need fire sprinklers the most; otherwise, they go up in flames in mere moments.
The cited factor for putting in such a clause is often because it would end up costing the homeowner or property owner too much money to install fire sprinklers, usually because they also have to upgrade the water pressure or ability of the property. This case has been provided numerous times when dealing with apartments of 200+ units in the past. This results in entire apartment complexes lacking fire sprinklers despite needing them.
Of course, a number of other factors are provided by apartment owners, such as the fire sprinklers causing mold, which only would occur if the water they produce isn’t cleaned up afterward and if the apartment didn’t burn down. If mold were really the biggest concern then you would count yourself lucky. Fire happens, and having the ability to fight that fire the moment that fire happens can save many people.
A sprinkler is like having three or four fire fighters just sitting in your home, making sure you are safe. The damage they might cause is more than worth it for the safety they provide, and they only cause that damage as they are providing safety. So really these kinds of clauses leave it up to the apartments to decide whether they want to go up in flames or be surrounded by mold, which mold is a much easier thing to deal with than fire, that’s for sure.
