Hot on the heels of the Welsh Assembly voting for mandatory fire sprinklers in all new domestic homes fire chiefs in Warwickshire are now pushing for sprinklers to be fitted in all new buildings in the county including residential homes. They have also mooted that they would like to extend the policy to existing homes.
Warwickshire County deputy fire officer Gary Phillips cited the major fires at Avon Valley School in Rugby in 2004 and Warwickshire College's Moreton Hall in 2008 as examples where he is convinced sprinklers would have helped reduce the extent of the damage caused. I would wholeheartedly agree with this assertion and would go further. Such are the proven safety benefits of Automatic Sprinklers that clearly it should be Government that legislates the mandatory installation of sprinklers in all public buildings and multi occupancy retail and business complexes including residential properties as a matter of public safety.
Single occupancy domestic homes are a different matter and the reported need for Warwickshire's Fire chiefs to arrange meetings with house builders to discuss how sprinkler systems could be included in new builds demonstrates the problem for Warwickshire County Council which is also backing the campaign. Without legislation it is down to the builders and housing associations to agree to install the systems and this comes down to a tradeoff between the cost and the safety benefits. The builder would look to pass on the cost in the sale price which would put him at a disadvantage if his competitors did not follow suit. The home buyer would need to recognize the added safety benefit as a worthwhile added investment.
An interesting piece of research published by the construction management and consultancy firm Faithful+Gould suggests that to install sprinklers in a typical 95 m² 2 storey, 3 bedroom house could add around £5200 per unit, excluding BWIC (building work in connection), or around 5% to the build cost of a £100,000 unit. With Sprinklers there are huge economies of scale and in the same research a leading supplier of sprinkler systems estimated that for a block of 4 flats it could cost as little as £6,000 excluding BWIC whereas in a 476-unit student accommodation scheme in progress for a South Wales university, the additional cost for sprinklers was only in the region of £280,000, less than £600 per accommodation and just 2% of the contract value.
No doubt the debate on legislating for domestic sprinklers will run and run but at least as time passes the Welsh decision for right or wrong will eventually provide some real statistics on which to base some rational arguments.
