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LOS ALAMITOS POLICE DEPARTMENT |
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3201 Katella Avenue, Los Alamitos, CA 90720 | Business (562) 431-2255 | 24-Hour Police Service/Dispatch (562) 594-7232 | EMERGENCY 9-1-1 |
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| May 12, 2005 at 0630 hours FIREFIGHTER PRACTICES WHAT HE PREACHES By Jennifer Muir – Register Columnist Stephen Miller always meant to install fire sprinklers in his house. When I call Miller, an Orange County Fire Authority captain and department spokesman, he’s usually standing in front of a fire-ravaged home or a smoky building. He helped write the department’s sprinkler safety presentation, and he can spout off life-saving facts such as these: • No resident in Orange County Fire Authority territory has ever died in a fire inside a home equipped with sprinklers. • More than 90 percent of fires are contained by the spray from a single sprinkler head, decreasing property damage. Still, in the 24 years he’s been fighting fires, Miller has put off installing sprinklers in his own home. Until now. “It’s finally time to put my money where my mouth is,” Miller said. Here’s what changed: Miller was at a fire last April that killed a Rancho Santa Margarita teen. He talked to the victim’s father and returned the following day to add flowers to the makeshift memorial at the house. At the time, Miller’s wife was pregnant with their son, Elias, now 8 months old. Shortly after, he bought a home in Rancho Santa Margarita. “To see the conditions – how that fire moved through the place so fast and so hot – and to think that … we have the technology, it seemed so wrong to me,” Miller said. “And now I’m not just taking care of myself, I’m taking care of someone else, too.” Miller has spent the past two months shopping for a contactor to install a sprinkler system inside this 1,400 square-foot home. He hopes to choose a company and have construction completed by the beginning of June, close to the start of the wildfire season. He expects to pay $1,500 to $3,500. Miller said it’s difficult to know exactly how many Orange County homes have fire sprinklers, but says too many don’t. Many of the ones that do are in the handful of cities that require sprinklers in new homes, including San Clemente, Placentia, Dana Point, Stanton, Buena Park and some areas of Seal Beach. Unsightly sprinkler heads aren’t protruding through the ceilings of most of these homes. They’re burrowed in the ceiling, so there’s little danger that a careless game of indoor catch could knock off the sprinkler seal and drench the carpets. In fact, the danger of sprinklers causing unintentional flooding is much lower than most people realize. Here’s why: Each sprinkler head is activated independently when heat in the room rises to dangerous levels – the standard is 155 degrees. So all the sprinklers in a house won’t be activated if a fire is confined to a bedroom, and burning some toast won’t cause a deluge to drop in your kitchen. And, if the sprinklers are connected to an alarm system, fire-fighters will respond immediately and shut off the water once they’ve contained the blaze, Miller said. Still, the fear of high costs to retrofit an older home had kept many unprotected. Paul Methot, who sells residential sprinkler systems from Tyco Fire Product’s Brea office, estimates that retrofitting a house costs about $3 a square foot. But tax breaks and lower insurance premiums may offset the cost. Methot says that work takes about three days and requires drilling holes in the ceiling and burrowing through some walls, especially in a two- story home. “It would be uncomfortable” to be present during construction, Methot said. Still, Miller and his family won’t stay away during their sprinkler installation. And he’s sure he’ll sleep peacefully when it’s done. Contact the writer: (714) 796-7829 or jmuir@ocregister.com Get a list of approved fire sprinkler contractors by calling the Orange County Fire Authority at (714) 573-6200. Learn more about fire sprinklers at www.homefiresprinkler.org |
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