A committed and united fire service accomplished a significant feat September 21 in the fight to save lives and property. At the International Code Council (ICC) final action hearings in Minneapolis, voting members of the ICC passed the proposal to change the International Residential Code to require residential fire sprinklers in all new one- and two-family dwellings. A strong majority–73 percent–voted in favor of the proposal. The vote was 1,282 in favor, 470 against.
“Although there is still work to do, this precedent-setting vote will change the face of fire safety in America,” said Chief Larry J. Grorud, president of the International Association of Fire Chiefs (IAFC). “The fire service has won a major victory in the fight to make our citizens’ homes safer.”
Fire service personnel showed up in force as part of a unified effort with others from more than 100 public safety organizations, including the IAFC and International Asscoation of Fire Fighters (IAFF). They came prepared with incontrovertible evidence that residential fire sprinklers save much more than property; they save the lives of the public and the lives of fire service personnel who protect them.
Director Alan Perdue, the International Director of the IAFC’s Fire and Life Safety Section, expressed the tremendous sense of accomplishment felt by all after the long and arduous process to get this requirement into the codes.
“For more than 30 years, the fire service community has worked toward the goal of saving lives and reducing fire loss by installing residential fire sprinklers,” he said. “By bringing all aspects of the fire service together for a common cause, we have concluded the first monumental step of requiring residential fire sprinklers in the model codes. It is imperative, however, that we continue our collaborative efforts to protect both the public and our firefighters on the front line by working to make certain that these requirements are also adopted into state and local codes. I want to personally thank every individual and organization that was involved in making this a reality and know that your continued commitment to this initiative will save thousands of lives in the future.”
