The Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition® (HFSC) and the NFPA Fire Sprinkler Initiative® announce the launch of Home Fire Sprinkler Week, May 12 – 18, 2024, focusing on the home fire problem and the need for better understanding of the life safety benefits of installed home fire sprinklers.
In every community, home fires are a severe threat to residents and responding firefighters. Homes account for 78 percent of all civilian fire deaths. Today this problem is intensified by the fact that homes with modern furnishings, open spaces, unprotected lightweight wood construction, and emerging technologies such as lithium-ion batteries, make home fires deadly in two minutes or less. To confront this stubborn public safety burden, fire departments and safety advocates across North America will team up during the campaign to help amplify the message that fire sprinklers stop a fire from becoming deadly, protecting residents, and firefighters.
Each day during Home Fire Sprinkler Week, participants can highlight a different theme and content for social media and websites that focus on key facts about home fire sprinklers. The messages are sized for various platforms, making it easy to share with little time and effort. Everyone is encouraged to visit the campaign website each day and share the messages.
“Educating and increasing awareness about home fire sprinklers can be a challenge,” said Lorraine Carli, vice president of Outreach and Advocacy at NFPA and president of the HFSC. “What thwarts progress is a lack of public awareness, rampant myths, and the influence of special interests. More than one million homes are built each year and less than 10 percent are protected with fire sprinklers. Homes without fire sprinklers counter the goals of community risk reduction. During Home Fire Sprinkler Week, NFPA and HFSC are working together to raise awareness about unprotected home fires and how home fire sprinklers can prevent injuries, save lives, and protect property.”
Participants can take advantage of the free resources of the new HFSC Studio to create a wide range of educational materials for their fire sprinkler community outreach initiatives. With this new, easy-to-use online tool, fire departments can design their own flyers, posters, and social media cards; share messages through their social media platforms; and print customized materials to distribute at community events such as home shows and open houses, and during campaigns such as Fire Prevention Week™ (FPW™).
Fire safety advocates know, and every year national fire data reinforces, installed fire sprinklers reduce home fire injuries, deaths, and property loss. “That’s why all national building codes require sprinklers in new construction,” said Carli. “As a result, every new home built without fire sprinklers is by definition, substandard. Today’s homebuyers are savvy about safety and when they learn about fire sprinklers, they want them. The virtual reality, digital, and other Home Fire Sprinkler Week resources underscore not just that we can do better; they underscore exactly how to do better.”
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