Sprinkler requirement debated in Senate

Homeowners building new homes won't have to install residential fire sprinklers if the S.C. Senate passes the fire sprinkler bill next week.

In February, the state building council adopted the international code requiring all new construction to have sprinklers. The new code will go into effect in 2011 if no legislation is passed to prevent it.

The code and pending legislation has led to a lot of debate between fire safety officials who say that sprinklers save lives and homebuilders that say it should be a personal choice and that requiring sprinklers would reduce the number of people who could buy property.

The Senate discussed several possible amendments this week, but all were voted down, said Sen. Ray Cleary, R-Murrells Inlet, adding that heexpects the bill to pass next week.

He said he will vote for the bill because consumers should have a choice in how to spend their money, but wanted more time to study the process and costs involved before permanently preventing the code.

Cleary proposed an amendment, which did not pass, that recommended waiting two years to sort through the conflicting information about the costs of sprinkler installation and the impact on homeowners insurance, he said.

"I could not see any harm by saying let's study it and then decide," Cleary said. "Wouldn't it be nice to actually know what the true facts are before we eliminate the new code."

Another concern is whether insurance companies will increase rates, especially because homeowners on the Grand Strand are already paying as much as they can for insurance, he said.

If the bill passes and South Carolina is not in compliance with all international building codes, it may impact homeowners' insurance rates, though it is unclear how much prices could change, said Russ Dubisky, the executive director of the S.C. Insurance News Service.

"The Insurance Services Organization does a lot of its rating based off the international building code," he said. "If South Carolina is out of step or substandard to the building code, that would have an impact on their scoring, which could impact insurance rates for South Carolina residents."

Installing sprinklers could also mean savings on insurance payments, with many companies already offering discounts, he said. The size of the discounts vary greatly, so it is difficult to estimate an average, Dubisky said.

Fire officials say that sprinkler systems should be required because they save lives and property.

More than 70 people died in residential fires in the state last year, said Myrtle Beach Fire Chief Alvin Payne, adding that sprinklers could have saved those lives.

"Unfortunately it looks like the Senate has made up [its] mind and there doesn't seem to be any room for compromise," he said. "To me all they're compromising is the safety of the residents of South Carolina."

Requiring sprinklers is overdue, Payne said.

"We shouldn't be giving people an option on safety measures that can mean a life or death situation," he said. "If we don't start today, when is a good time?"

Georgetown Fire Chief Mack Reed said that homebuilders are trying to put a value on life with their argument that it would be too costly to require all new homes to have sprinklers.

"I do believe the benefits of the sprinkler system outweighs everything else," he said. "It's going to save lives, and you can't put a dollar value on that."

Homebuilders have argued that sprinklers should be a choice, not a requirement, and said that if the codes went into effect it could mean some people would not be able to afford to buy a home.

"We feel like this should be more a consumer choice," said Fred Coyne, the president of the Horry Georgetown Homebuilders Association. "No doubt we don't want anybody to be a victim of a fire, but then again you have to look at the bigger picture."

There should be more improvements and refinement of the sprinkler systems before they become mandatory, he said.

Coyne also said that there are a limited number of people who are certified to install sprinklers so it would be difficult to install all of the systems if the code went into effect.

The code would have a significant impact on housing in the state at a time when the industry is already struggling, Mark Nix, the executive director of the Homebuilders Association of South Carolina, has said.

Builders are happy to install sprinklers, he said, but worry about how many people would no longer be able to afford a house.

The sprinkler requirement would price 25,000 families out of the market, according to research his organization has done, he said. Nix said that with a variety of fire safety standards, including wired-in smoke detectors and advanced materials, already in place, houses built today are fairly safe.

Nix estimated the cost of sprinkler installation at between $4 and $6 a square foot. Jeff Hunter, the owner of Grand Strand Fire Sprinkler, said that a standard sprinkler system for a typical house costs less than $2 a square foot to install.

Hunter said there has been a lot of misinformation about residential sprinkler systems. Most homes would not require a change in the taps because the new low-flow residential sprinkler systems hook into the standard three-quarter inch taps and use the home's normal water system.

Once the system is installed there is no yearly inspection that needs to be done, like with commercial sprinkler systems, and they are reliable, he said.

Another common misconception is that all sprinklers go off at the same time - in fact they go off one at a time as the heat from the fire sets them off.

Hunter said that because the code would allow plumbers with additional training and the appropriate insurance to do the installation, there shouldn't be a problem meeting the demand.

Even if the bill doesn't pass, the debate should raise awareness, he said.

"I hope that the truth of the cost will actually get out," Hunter said. "For about what it costs to upgrade countertops I can put in a sprinkler system."

Todd Blomdahl, the fire marshal for Midway fire rescue, said he doesn't understand why homebuilders are against sprinklers, which studies have shown are effective.

"Unfortunately, our legislators have been misled by other interest groups, for whatever reason, and we're trying our best to educate everyone not only about the benefits of residential sprinkler systems [but] about low costs," he said.

Blomdahl said even if the bill passes, sprinklers will someday be the norm.

"It's coming. It's just a matter of when everybody, when the light bulb actually comes on, and people say this isn't a big deal," he said.