Fire chief advocates for residential fire sprinklers in new construction

Fire chief advocates for residential fire sprinklers in new construction

By Community Impact Newspaper Staff Wednesday, 03 June 2009

AUSTIN — Westlake and Oak Hill Fire Chief Gary Warren has long been a proponent of residential fire sprinklers, and this month he will retrofit his own home with sprinklers to encourage installing systems while homes are under construction.

Warren made the decision, not only because he feels it is an important, life-saving feature, but because he wanted to understand what it would take to install them in an existing home.

“The life and fire safety features of a home are decided by the person who builds the home and will for all practical purposes decide the life safety protection for all future families occupying the home throughout its useful life," Warren said. "Simply by saying a family who cares about ensuring life safety can always retrofit a home with fire sprinklers is not practical. The fact is, installing residential fire sprinklers during construction is affordable. Retrofitting the home with them later is not.”

He hopes to increase awareness for those involved in new construction by producing a video of the entire installation. Copies may be requested by visiting the departmental websites. A link to the video will also be posted when the project is completed.

For more information, visit www.westlakefd.org or www.oakhillfire.org.

Warren first introduced a sprinkler ordinance to the Austin City Council for high-rise residential buildings in the early 2001. The city offered low-interest loans to owners but gained little traction due to the costs involved. Ordinances in various forms have since been proposed to the City of West Lake Hills, the City of Rollingwood, the unincorporated areas of Travis County Emergency Services District 9 and Travis County Emergency Services District 3.