Council votes to require fire sprinklers in all new buildings
By Daniel Wolowicz camarillo@theacorn.com

The Camarillo City Council last week voted 50 to adopt an amendment that will require installation of indoor fire sprinklers in the city's new homes and in any residence to which sizable additions have been made.

Camarillo was one of the last cities in Ventura County to adopt the amendment to the county's list of building regulations required by the Ventura County Fire Department.

The ordinance, expected to go into effect in May, will also require installation of sprinklers in all new commercial buildings.

"More and more jurisdictions are looking into taking advantage of the benefits of sprinklers to save lives," said Massoud Araghi, a county fire inspector.

The decision was made at the Nov. 29 City Council meeting after a brief presentation by fire officials.

Greg Robinson, director of building and safety for the city, said that all new buildings other than barns and unoccupied utility structures will be required to have fire sprinklers.

In addition, any house that increases in size by more than half of its total square footage will need to be retrofitted with a sprinkler system throughout the home.

For example, if a home is 1,000 square feet and an addition to the home measures more than 500 square feet, the whole house needs fire sprinklers.

Robinson said commercial buildings in which more than 25 percent of the building is remodeled must also be retrofitted with sprinklers.

Mayor Mike Morgan asked fire department officials to explain how the new law will affect construction costs.

Christina Jamison, a fire inspector with the county, said it will cost roughly $1.20 per square foot to install sprinklers in a typical brand new single-family home built from the ground up. For a larger new custom home, the price will jump to $1.70 per square foot.

To retrofit a single-family home with sprinklers, Jamison said, would cost anywhere from $2 to $2.50 per square foot.

Fire officials said that although fire sprinklers may add to the cost of construction, residents whose homes have the sprinklers are 95 percent more likely to survive a house fire than those who don't, according to the National Fire Protection Association.

A 10-year study done by the Scottsdale, Ariz. fire department reported that "the dollar loss from a fire in sprinklered structures averaged $1,945 versus $17,067 in non-sprinklered structures."

In Ventura County, fire officials said their own five-year study yielded similar results.

The county's report on fire sprinklers said the commonly held belief that fire sprinklers may turn on by accident is untrue and that "the probability of a fire sprinkler accidentally discharging . . . is only 1 in 16 million sprinklers."

The report also said that because sprinklers are heat sensitive, a fire typically only sets off one or two.

Fire sprinklers, according to the report, spray only 13 to 20 gallons of water per minute as opposed to a fire hose's 175 gallons per minute, which limits the amount of water damage likely to be caused inside a home.

To read the Ventura County Fire Department's full report on the Internet, visit the home page at fire.countyofventura.org/ index.html.