Duncan McNaughton is pushing for a bylaw to make sprinkler systems mandatory in new homes.
Take a look around the modern-day home. If a fire breaks out, those laminate floors and shellacked coffee tables could stimulate flames and cut escape time substantially, says Duncan McNaughton, a fire protection engineer for Ottawa Fire Services.
City councillors were faced with a tough decision earlier this month when Ottawa Fire Services approached them, pushing for the installation of residential sprinklers in new homes across Ottawa.
The service report pressed the city to make in-wall piping systems mandatory for all new buildings.
“We’re not saying don’t go with smoke detectors. You need both. All detectors do is alert the resident of the fire,” says McNaughton.
“The big issue is that the new buildings constructed with lightweight materials outside and petroleum-based things like carpets inside, means houses burn faster and they burn hotter.”
The report states residential sprinklers will extinguish the seed of the fire and prevent it from spreading, as well as provide the required additional time for residents to flee to safety. This means fewer deaths.
Murray Pound is a volunteer firefighter and head of Gold Seal Master Builder, an Alberta construction company that promotes and installs sprinklers. He says he's seen all sides of this story.
“It really is affordable. Our homes only go up in cost about one per cent, and there’s a huge reduction in the insurance costs. Sometimes it’s as big as 20 per cent, so the differential and the added cost offset one another.”
Homes with sprinklers also have a higher resale value and increase in worth over time, says Pound.
Councillors voted to support the fire services' measures, but McNaughton says some builders and construction companies in Ottawa aren't happy with the decision.
“They believe they are way too expensive, add to the cost of homes, hurt the market and make homes more expensive,” says McNaughton.
“But it’s not like that. They’re using old, outdated figures that inflate the numbers. They think that there is a six to eight per cent increase on the home’s cost, but realistically it’s only two to three on average.”
The builders are using figures from a 2005 Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. document, but McNaughton says the data actually date back to the early 1990s.
And for home owners worried about unnecessary water damage from the sprinkler, worry not, says Pound. Although smoke alarms activate when smoke is detected, the sprinklers only spray if there is an extreme change in heat temperature.
And only the sprinkler unit closest to the heat will go off. Ninety per cent of fires are contained or extinguished with only one of the home’s sprinklers being set off.
Alex Cullen was the only councillor to vote against the measure. Cullen says this is a provincial issue.
“I really think that for an issue this fundamental, we would be better off having the Ontario fire marshal do the appropriate assessment. I think the province should take a look at and be able to judge if this is something everyone should be compelled to do.”
McNaughton says sprinkler heads are advancing in technology, going down in price, and improving in style.
The sprinklers can be installed flush with your ceiling and their protective caps can be painted any colour.
The sprinklers use the same piping as a home’s regular water supply, and the older more expensive copper pipes have been replaced by a new system which is cheaper to install, says McNaughton.
City council is reviewing the measure, and McNaughton says he's hopeful the outcome will mean new homes will house new sprinklers.