The notion of home fire sprinklers has been in the back of many minds for almost 30 years. Here's a rundown of common concerns about where we've been and where we may be going.
Basically, the idea was to allow a smaller, better trained crew of firefighters to do more with less. Sprinklers are a great way to achieve that. It was a given that automatic sprinklers were a great benefit in fighting fires in commercial structures. So why not apply sprinklers to homes? What's more, commercial sprinklers are more for property protection; residential sprinklers are a life safety matter. The National Fire Protection Association says that eight out of every 10 fire deaths in the United States occur in residential structures.