April 13, 2010
Dear MUBEC
Board Member,
Maine Uniform Building and
Energy Codes Board
Regarding Mandatory Fire
Sprinkler Systems
On Behalf of the Home
Builders & Remodelers Association of Maine
April 13, 2010
Certainly everyone
involved in home construction knew the 2009 International Code Council
(ICC) adoption of fire sprinklers in the International Residential Code
(IRC) would cause an uproar when it came time to answer the question of
whether it should be adopted for the people of Maine.
Last June, Eric Ellis of
the State Fire Marshalls office spoke to the Board of Directors of the
Home Builders & Remodelers Association of Maine (HBRAME) and stated he
did not see mandated fire sprinklers being adopted in Maine for all
homes, but did suggest they be used in large sub-divisions.
The ICC organization
develops and maintains model building codes for use by state and local
jurisdictions, in Maine’s case, the International Building Code (IBC)
and International Residential Code (IRC). These codes are not
enforceable until adopted by a state or local jurisdiction, with or
without amendments, and it then becomes law. HBRAME supports Maine
having amendments to account for differences in our current laws and to
enhance housing affordability by providing cost-effective requirements
to provide for the health and safety of the occupants of homes.
What the fire advocates,
including the State Fire Marshalls Office, have failed to mention to
Maine Citizens is the unorthodox
way the residential fire sprinkler mandate was
adopted into the 2009 IRC. A sudden and controversial arrival on
Saturday, September 20th of 900 fire officials eligible to vote at the
International Code Council's final action hearings in
Minneapolis swelled the number of sprinkler proponents and the measure
was approved by a vote of 1,283 to 470. About 1,200 voting devices
were turned in immediately after the residential fire sprinkler mandate
was approved, suggesting that most of the proponents left immediately
after the vote was taken. It seems clear that these particular
officials were focused on one issue only — residential fire sprinkler
mandates. — without any benefit of perspective regarding how such
mandates jibe with the hundreds of other code proposals considered at
this hearing. That’s unfortunate, because such reasoned discussion is
what the model code process was designed to accomplish.
On April 4, 2010 some of
you may have seen on TV, the News stating the number of deaths in Maine
home fires was 15. What you did not hear was the type of homes and
year they were built. HBRAME did a survey from April 2003 to
October 2006 and found 10 deaths occurred in home fires. The type
of homes included: (5) mobile homes, (1) 1973 home, (1) 1953 home, (1)
camp, (1) log home, and (1) home under construction. Mandating
fire sprinklers would have not saved one life in these cases.
We believe that older housing stock is more of a threat to the safety of
Maine’s citizens than newer housing and more should be done to protect
those living in older, substandard housing in Maine.
On April 1, 2010 Gerald
R. Leach of Northeast Fire Sprinkle Corporation told me that sprinklers
could be installed in homes with public water for between $2.00 to $2.50
per sq. ft. However our real numbers for a home, which were
installed in 2009, is $3.17 per sq. ft. based on a 1008 sq. ft. house.
That’s for the materials, NO markup. Northeast also stated if you
are on a well, which many rural homes are, it would be $1,300 dollars
and that would buy you a 300-gallon tank, pump and TWO sprinkler heads
in your home. Who will be responsible and take the liability of
where those two heads are located?
Homebuilders have a vested interest in the
safety and affordability of their products both during the building
process and after the house becomes someone's home. Whenever changes are
proposed to the building codes that govern how homes are constructed in
each community, the homebuilder acts as a consumer advocate. It's the
homebuilder's role to make sure that these proposals are necessary and
that they are cost effective before they are adopted so that homes stay
affordable. For each $1,000 added to the price of a home nationwide,
another 250,000 potential homebuyers are forced to remain on the
sidelines.
Homebuilders would never diminish the
important role that cost-effective building codes play in providing for
occupant safety and health; in fact, new homes are safer than ever.
As a society, we cannot afford to deny needed housing for the sake of
new requirements without justifying the value of it.
The
Association was disappointed with the process used by the Fire Sprinkler
Technical Advisory Group. The meetings were set-up with very
little notice and were not held in a central location to allow more
attendance. Who was eligible to vote, only those nominated to
serve or anyone who attended a meeting? Were out-of-state
sprinkler vendors allowed to take part in conversations about what is
right for Maine and vote?
Adding mandates for fire sprinklers will
adversely impact the demand for new housing in Maine and further damage
the home building industry already experiencing a downturn of historical
proportions. It will keep many potential new homebuyers from the market.
It will force many to remain in or purchase existing older housing,
which are the primary types of housing, including mobile homes, that are
burning.
Homeowners should have the
option whether to install fire sprinklers in their homes. Fire
sprinklers in single-family homes are expensive to install, can be
difficult to maintain in Maine’s climate and do not represent a
cost-effective safety improvement over smoke alarm systems. For that
reason, the Home Builders & Remodelers Association of Maine does not
support mandated fire sprinklers in the MUBEC.
Let’s give the citizens
of Maine a CHOICE not a mandate.
Respectfully submitted on
behalf of the
Home Builders & Remodelers Association of Maine
Gary R. Jordan Jr.
State President
