By Jacqueline Koch
The Chattanooga Times Free Press (Tennessee)
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — After a 2003 fire killed nearly 100 people at a Rhode Island nightclub, the local fire marshal's office began seeking ways to make city buildings safer.
One step is advocating for sprinkler systems in new buildings that can fit 100 or more occupants and, within a couple of years, requiring sprinklers in new one- or two-family dwellings.
"We're a big proponent of sprinkling buildings," Fire Marshal Craig Haney said. "It saves property, saves lives."
Chief Haney said he hopes to appear before the City Council soon to push for the ordinance and hopes it would be in effect by July 1.
The damage at Rhode Island's The Station concert club &madsh; a small, wooden building constructed in 1976 &madsh; would not have been so severe and probably not fatal if a sprinkler system was installed, the local fire chief told CNN in 2003.
Adding the ordinance to the Chattanooga City Code would allow the city to mirror standards set forth in the 2006 International Fire Code. Currently, the city follows the guidelines set forth in the 2003 code, which states that building must have sprinkler systems if they can hold 300 or more occupants. Buildings constructed before the code went into effect would not be required to meet the new law.
One- and two-family dwellings would be required to have sprinkler systems in the 2011 code, but the city has the right to exclude any portion of the code it adopts, Chief Haney said.
The City Council's Legal and Legislative Committee may discuss the issue but has not put the item on its agenda.
"It hasn't been presented to us yet," committee Chairman Jack Benson said. "I've heard just casual conversations about it."
Michael Alfano, who owns the Comedy Catch on Brainerd Road, said his business can hold up to 250 patrons, so he's exempt from the current code.
"It's just an added cost for safety and, as every construction project goes, you put that cost into your projections," he said. "I think the grandfathering in is a good thing. I think it's a good idea (to put in sprinklers) for new construction."
The estimated cost of a sprinkler system can be anywhere from $1.50 to $5.75 per square foot of protected area during renovation, according to construction company Burt Hill Kosar Rittelmann Associates in Pittsburgh, Pa.
The National Fire Protection Association constantly sees the importance of sprinklers because they save the lives of occupants and firefighters, as well as personal property, said Robert Solomon, the association's department manager for building and life safety codes.
A nationwide push for sprinkler requirements in fire codes began in the 1980s, Mr. Solomon said.
"We had some pretty significant fires like the MGM hotel fire in Las Vegas in 1980, and that was kind of the threshold event," he said. "Over the years, we saw where sprinklers could have probably made a difference."
Copyright 2009 Chattanooga Publishing Company
