By Russell Sanders – Courier Journal

The No. 1 priority of government at all levels is public safety. Elected and appointed officials often talk about the importance of fire safety, but it’s nothing but rhetoric if they don’t participate in the development, adoption and enforcement of the model building and fire codes.
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These codes are written to provide a minimum level of safety. Too often, however, to appease special interest groups focused on saving money, fire and life-safety provisions are removed from these minimum codes. Last month, for example, there was an attempt to weaken the electrical code. Kentucky fire and electrical professionals showed up in Frankfort in mass to oppose the proposed changes, which would have made residents of our state more vulnerable to the risk of fire.

On Monday, state regulators are holding a hearing on the issue of whether local elected officials have the authority to adopt more stringent fire and life-safety provisions in their communities. Clearly the intent of the proposed new rules is to prevent communities from adopting life-saving ordinances, namely one- and two-family dwelling sprinkler ordinances like one recently adopted by the city of Indian Hills.

I first ran into this question of who has the authority in the early ’90s when I was Louisville’s fire chief. Back then, the issue was a local ordinance to require the retro-fitting of high-rise buildings with sprinklers. The ordinance was logical: Mayor Jerry Abramson and I had seen too many examples of tragedies that could have been either prevented or at least made less tragic — the MGM fire in Las Vegas, for instance, where 85 people died. It was just common sense that people who live and work in high rises here, along with the fire fighters who are called upon to respond to those fires, should have the protection sprinklers afford.

And yet state regulators objected. They claimed that the minimum building standards in Kentucky were also the maximum standards — a claim they now are making again. I saw no evidence in the law that this was true then, and I still see none. So we proceeded with our plan in Louisville, and all high-rise buildings are now fitted with sprinklers.

The focus of the current attempt to enforce what’s called “mini-maxi” regulations is the sprinkler requirement for new homes constructed in Indian Hills that was recently passed by the Indian Hills City Council. The idea is no more outrageous than sprinklers in high rises were in the early ’90s.

For example, 46 cities in the Chicago metropolitan area have a similar requirement. So do many cities and counties in Arizona, California, Georgia and Maryland, to name only a few. But state regulators are claiming that because the state building and residential codes don’t require sprinklers in new dwellings, local jurisdictions can’t either. What’s the logic of that?

Here’s what we know: Fires kill more people in the U.S. every year than all natural disasters combined. Eighty percent of all fire deaths occur in the home. The single most effective way to prevent fire-related deaths is the installation of residential fire sprinklers.

If installed during new home construction — as the Indian Hills ordinance would require — home fire sprinklers generally cost between 1 and 1.5 percent of the total building cost, which is about what a homebuyer would pay for an upgrade in carpeting. Residential sprinklers are small, and can be recessed into ceilings or walls. Some models are completely concealed.

I have been in involved in the fire service for more than 40 years, 29 with the city of Louisville and 13 with the National Fire Protection Association. I’ve seen countless deaths and horrific burn injuries that could have and should have been prevented.

Any fire professional will tell you that the most effective way to prevent these tragedies is sprinkler protection. The state should not stand in the way of progressive political leaders who put the health and safety of their citizens first.

Russell E. Sanders is a retired chief of the Louisville Fire Department. He is now manager of the National Fire Protection Association.

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