Coming Soon ! We are planning seminars for Seismic, Inspection, Testing & Maintenance and Underground. We are looking at May or June. Also, we are looking at an ICC class, "When Disaster Strikes: An Institute for Disaster response". Stay tuned to this station !

The St. Louis Fire Sprinkler Alliance and Sprinkler Fitters Union Local 268 are providing residential fire sprinkler systems for the 30 new Habitat For Humanity Homes currently being built in St. Louis. Local distributors have donated some of the materials for these Life Safety Systems. The Model Building Codes now require fire sprinklers in all new residential buildings, including one and two-family homes. Fire Sprinklers...Can you live without them ?

The St. Louis County Council on June 22, 2010 chose to eliminate the requirement for residential sprinklers from the 2009 IRC. The Council went against the recommendations of the Greater St. Louis Area Fire Chiefs, Code Officials, the Metropolitan Fire Marshals Association, the International Association of Firefighters, the International Association of Fire Chiefs, the St. Louis County Building Commission and the St. Louis County Code Review Committee. Now the safety of the citizens and the firefighters in St. Louis County is needlessly put in jeopardy. Typically, jurisdictions adopting codes will make modifications that are more strict than the Model Codes, which are the minimum requirements. At the request of a special interest group, the Council eliminated a Life Safety requirement from the code and went well below the minimum standards set forth in the IRC. Are the profits of special interest groups more important than the safety of the citizens and firefighters ?

If you are planning to build a new home, the home builder is required to offer you educational material describing the benefits of residential sprinklers. There is a form to be filled out by the builder and to be signed by the buyer. The form does give you the option to "opt-out" of the sprinkler system. The Model Building Codes require residential sprinklers in all new one and two-family homes. The State of Missouri, however, has allowed sprinkler systems to be an "option" until December 31, 2011. Don't be misled ! You can still require the home builder to provide this Life Safety System in your new home. Sprinkler systems typically cost only a dollar a day when amortized over the length of your loan. Plus, you'll be saving money on your Homeowner's Insurance. The National Average cost is $1.61 per square foot. If you feel the price offered by your builder is too high, contact any of the St. Louis Area Fire Sprinkler Contractors. www.stlfsa.org For more information go to: www.HomeFireSprinkler.org

The St. Louis Fire Sprinkler Alliance donated a fire sprinkler system to the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity House at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. 25 year old Brian Schlittler died in a fire in the fraternity house in December 2006. You can view Fox 2's story at: http://www.fox2now.com/ktvi-umsl-fraternity-rebuilds-041009,0,585278.story

The St. Louis County Building Commission voted unanimously at today's meeting (5/12/10) to proceed with the recommendation from the Building Code Review Committee to mandate residential sprinkles in all new townhouses and one & two family dwelling units starting 1/1/12. The open meeting lasted about an hour and hosted plenty of discussion. One organization/group had a large turnout and made it perfectly clear that mandating sprinkles as called out in the 2009 IRC was not the right thing to do. Like always, cost seemed to be the popular reason why sprinklers should not be mandated. There was repeated testimony that sprinklers would cause an economic disaster, new homes are much safer and do not catch fire, no one could afford a new home which would result everyone living in older homes that are unsafe, other counties are not going to adopt sprinkler requirements and this went on for quite sometime. They even mentioned life safety. Yes, LIFE SAFETY! Mr. Sullivan quoted NFPA saying more people die in residential fires from cigarette smoking materials than any other ignition source. Therefore, with the new safe cigarettes in Missouri, the number of residential fires will be reduced and there is no need for sprinklers. With this hurdle behind us, we have a huge task ahead. A certain group left the meeting today very discouraged and will move forward at full steam to achieve victory at the Council level. We must be organized and have our best foot forward to educate the Council members. Thank you, Paul Mercurio, President St. Louis Metropolitan Fire Marshals Association

The final action hearing agenda for the 2012 International Residential Code (IRC) has been released by the International Code Council (ICC), and we are pleased to report that there were no public comments challenging code requirements for residential fire sprinklers. Accordingly, under ICC regulations, requirements for residential sprinklers will not be subject to debate at ICC's final action hearing in Dallas in May. Instead, proposals to rescind sprinkler requirements from the IRC will be automatically disapproved, without discussion, as part of a consent agenda. ICC's membership has spoken very clearly on the issue of residential fire sprinklers, implementing requirements using a gradual and measured approach over a period of more than 20 years. ICC's legacy organizations began requiring fire sprinklers in multifamily occupancies in the 1980s. Those requirements were extended to single family homes in 2006 via an optional IRC appendix, and in 2008, ICC members approved fire sprinklers as a standard feature to be included in all new homes. That action was upheld on appeal and was then reaffirmed last year by the ICC code development committee that oversees the IRC. In the latter vote, EVERY member of the code development committee, other than the four who were appointed by the National Association of Home Builders, voted in favor of residential sprinklers, and that vote was then ratified by a vote of ICC members in attendance at the hearing. "The true beneficiary of this great news is the American public," said Chief Ronny J. Coleman, president of the IRC Fire Sprinkler Coalition and former fire marshal for the State of California. "Model code requirements establishing fire sprinklers as a standard feature in new homes are clearly here to stay, and that accomplishment, earned through the courage and commitment of our nation's building and fire-safety professionals, will save lives, prevent injuries and reduce property damage associated with residential fires." The 2009 IRC, including the fire sprinkler requirement, has been adopted in California, Pennsylvania, Maryland, South Carolina and New Hampshire, and the code has cleared administrative adoption hurdles in New Jersey. However, home builder associations (HBAs) in these and other states, with the exception of California where the building industry association supported residential sprinklers, have pulled out all stops in an effort to block adoption of the IRC sprinkler provisions. "HBAs across the country are literally throwing temper tantrums," said Jeffrey Shapiro, Executive Director of the IRC Fire Sprinkler Coalition when asked to describe what's happening with IRC adoptions in many states. "HBAs have largely controlled building codes affecting new home construction for decades, and they clearly don't like the idea of public safety officials stepping in and exerting authority over their industry. Nevertheless, we are pleased to see public safety trumping politics in a growing number of states." One issue that may ultimately shift the perspective of builders towards residential fire sprinklers is legal liability. Regardless of whether a state or locality chooses to amend fire sprinkler requirements out of the IRC, courts may well hold that it is incumbent upon builders to follow established standards of care for fire safety when they construct a new home. With EVERY national code (including the 2012 IRC) now requiring EVERY new residential property to be equipped with fire sprinklers, that standard of care is clearly established and is now well known to the industry, especially given the high profile of HBA opposition to sprinklers.

13-D ! The Metropolitan Fire Marshals Association and MABOI hosted a 13-D follow-up seminar July 30, 2010 at the Creve Coeur Community Center. Thanks to all who were able to attend. We had some great speakers ! If you still need an NFPA 13D book, they are available for $17.00.