Re: Automatic fire sprinklers

[Tom Horne <hornetd@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Jan 10, 1:10=A0pm, "k...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx"
<k...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> On Mon, 10 Jan 2011 06:23:30 -0800 (PST), jamesgangnc <jamesgan...@gmail.=
com>
> wrote:
>
>
>
> >On Jan 10, 8:25=A0am, "Techvoid" <n...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >> "Dean Hoffman" <dh0496@in#&ebr^as^#ka.com> wrote in message
>
> >>news:igeu4d$b7k$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> >> > =A0are now required in new Pennsylvania homes:
> >> >http://tinyurl.com/323syvr
>
> >> good idea?
>
> >It's not as expensive as it used to be. =A0There is a cpvc pipe that can
> >be used for sprinklers. =A0I don't think it's actually different, I
> >think they just made it orange. =A0But I'm not sure. =A0I got 8 sprinkle=
r
> >heads to put in the garage I'm building out at our lake house. =A0Picked
> >them up on ebay for about $5 apiece. =A0Idea came to me after some of
> >our friends almost burned down their house with a garage fire.
> >Happened while they were at home and they didn't know it until the
> >neighbor called them. =A0By then flames were rolling up the outside
> >wall. =A0$100k+ in damages and it barely got out of the garage into the
> >living space above before the fire dept put it out.
>
> >I think you could do a whole house for a couple hundred in materials.
> >Not sure how much additional plumber labor but I would think you could
> >keep it under a grand total. =A0My grandparents house in missisppi built
> >in the 1920's had sprinklers located in on the ceiling in front of
> >each fireplace hearth. =A0Since there was a fireplace in every room it
> >amounted to a whole house sprinkler system.
>
> Sounds like just more pipes to burst, particularly in a second home. =A0M=
ore
> nannyism for the government. =A0

That is a perfectly legitimate exercise of the police power of the
state.  Not every state action that places a burden on an individual
is rampant nannyism.  If the state action is designed to protect it's
citizens from each other rather than themselves it is a normal
function of state government and indeed the entire reason that state
government exists.  "Your right to swing your arms ends were the other
fellas nose begins."  Justice Holmes

Requiring sprinklers is no different than requiring a non combustible
roof.  It is a measure to protect your neighbors from your
carelessness so that when you have a fire; that 's right I said when.
on average every American family has one accidental fire during the
head of households lifetime;  the cost of that fire will be born by
you rather than your neighbors or your community.  That is not
nannyism but rather the legitimate exercise of the police power of the
state.  Fire protection is an exercise of the state's police powers
that is carried out by the local governments of each state.  The
reason that firefighters make an aggressive interior attack on a fire
in your home is so that it will not get large enough to become a
threat to your neighbors homes who, at least at that moment, are not
having an uncontrolled fire that could burn down their homes.  When
they attack the fire they cut large wholes in your roof and break out
all of your windows even though that increases your losses.  This is
done to vent the superheated gasses that would cause injury or death
to the firefighters and delay or prevent the attack on the fire.  All
of that is quite deliberate.  The value of your home is sacrificed to
keep the fire from spreading beyond the building of origin.  The
requirement for sprinklers is a decision by the state government to
take advantage of the available technology to shift the cost of fire
protection from the public to the owner of the building were the
threat will originate.
--
Tom Horne