Your family’s safety is your most important priority and nowhere is this more important than in your own home or the next one you choose for your family.
The Northern Illinois Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board (NIFSAB) is assisting local fire departments in conducting live burn demonstrations to educate the public about how quickly fires can become deadly and the important life- and property-saving benefits of fire sprinklers.
The demonstrations provide a side-by-side-comparison with two similarly furnished rooms — only one with a fire sprinkler installed in the room. Audiences will be able to feel the extreme heat and view the quick growth of fire in the unprotected room and compare it with the quick response and cooling action of the fire sprinkler in the other room. The demonstrations also allow fire departments to talk to attendees about pre-fire planning, smoke alarms, and escape planning.
“Today’s fires can become deadly in less than three minutes because of the contents we have in our homes,” said fire safety advocate and NIFSAB Executive Director Tom Lia. “These demonstrations allow people to see how quickly everything in the room can burst into flames. It also allows fire departments to show how fire sprinklers truly work, how heat from the fire causes the sprinkler to activate and control or extinguish fires.”
By the end of the year, NIFSAB will have assisted with 48 side-by-side fire and sprinkler burn demonstrations, along with 27 fire sprinkler trailer demonstrations. That would bring NIFSAB’s total side-by-side demos in the last decade to 657.
More than 100 Illinois communities now require fire sprinklers in new construction homes — and many more require them in new multifamily and commercial buildings — because they not only protect occupants and property, but also the lives of first responders.
NIFSAB is a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting progressive legislation, raising public awareness, and educating code officials and governmental policy makers by demonstrating the proven performance of fire sprinklers in saving both lives and property. For more info, visit www.firesprinklerassoc.org.
