Sprinkler showdown only delayed

Fire officials were still holding their breath in late May in hopes the Legislature would adjourn before it stopped a fire sprinkler mandate for new home construction from taking effect early next year. That didn't happen. Instead, lawmakers settled on what was billed as a compromise. In reality that compromise is only expected to delay the final showdown on this bitter, long-standing fight.

For decades the homebuilder lobby successfully kept the residential sprinkler mandate out of an international building code that is the law in 46 states. But each state that's governed by the code must approve revisions, making those states the homebuilders' new battleground. They actually lost in South Carolina earlier this year when the S.C. Building Codes Council agreed to the new mandate after a lengthy review process and testy, crowded hearings.

Undeterred, the homebuilders turned to the Legislature where their supporters pushed a bill to override the Codes Council and prohibit enforcement of the mandate. But a handful of sprinkler supporters in the Senate put up a delaying fight. In the end, the bill was revised to delay the effective date of the mandate from January 2011 until 2014. The legislation also appears to have watered down the Building Codes Council's authority on one- and two-family home construction by putting legislators back in that regulatory approval process.

While the homebuilders' lobby is dogged in its determination to prevent new single- and two-family homes from joining the national sprinkler mandate, firefighter groups are equally passionate about the need. In face of the housing downturn, the homebuilders' argument has basically revolved around added cost and home buyers' right to decide. Firefighters counter that most new homes aren't custom built and theirs is a life-saving cause.

Gary Mocarski, president of the S.C. Fire Marshals Association, concedes the compromise isn't the worst that could have happened, since the mandate "could have been killed altogether." Still, the fire inspector for Murrell's Inlet-Garden City knows his group has to stay on the alert, particularly in view of the avowed determination by some lawmakers to continue to try to kill the mandate. That effort is very likely to resume well before 2014.

Right now, Mocarski says, "the best strategy is public education." While no one knows the value of sprinklers more than firefighters, Mocarski notes they don't have the money to donate to legislative campaigns. Sadly, he says, in most cases in the Statehouse "money talks."

Mocarski says he just hopes that "common sense will prevail." He likens the situation to having discovered an affordable cure for cancer and that cure being resisted by those who don't currently have the disease. "We have the cure for fatalities in residential house fires," he said.

While Mocarski notes that the homebuilders got what they wanted for the next three years, he believes sprinkler proponents can use that time to strengthen their case in terms of such questions as the plumbing industry's readiness to deal with a new mandate. One of the major unresolved questions during the legislative debate was the potential impact on homeowner insurance rates if the state fails to enforce the new national code standard after its 2011 effective date. The next few years may provide more clarity on that issue.

There is no question, however, that sprinklers have a far greater life-saving capacity than smoke alarms. Bruce Arnel, fire marshal for the city of Myrtle Beach, gives this favorite analogy: "One tells you that your shirttail is on fire while the other puts it out."

Arnel is proud of the fact that discussions involving his city's fire officials and a developer have resulted in the first, all-sprinkled new subdivision in the state. The Sweetgrass subdivision in the Market Common District will have around 100 homes which Arnel said will be sprinkled at about $2 per square foot. According to Arnel, the developer wanted some setback adjustments which were approved because of the gains "in life safety" provided by the sprinkler agreement.

Mocarski says there's no question a more aggressive educational campaign on sprinklers is needed. For example, they have an extraordinary record of saving lives, and they don't result in the kind of flooding depicted in old Hollywood movies. Only one, not all, sprinklers goes off and that's the one in the immediate vicinity of the fire.

There is one way to lessen the number of new homes built without sprinklers in this state in the next three years. New home buyers could, and should, start demanding that developers provide this proven cure for fire fatalities.

Barbara S. Williams, editor emeritus of The Post and Courier, may be reached at bwilliams@postandcourier.com.