WPLN News
The Metro Council will soon take up a bill to exempt small group homes from having to install sprinkler systems.
The requirement was added when the Council adopted updated fire codes last year. This was after 16 individuals died in a 2003 nursing home fire in Nashville that didn’t have a sprinkler system.
Councilman Walter Hunt is sponsoring the exemption. He says small rehab and nursing homes can’t afford to install sprinkler systems.
“They felt it was discriminatory and violated the Fair Housing Act which says they have the right to provide housing for disabled and for rehabilitative services.”
But Fire Marshal Danny Hunt doesn’t agree with the exemption. He says the issue of safety for residents and firefighters takes precedence.
“We had a firefighter injured pretty seriously within the last year at a group home fire. And we’ve got documentation that sprinklers in group homes saved a building. We had a fire in one a few months ago that caught the attic on fire and the two heads in the sprinkler in that building saved the rest of the home.”
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