Crime & Safety

Photo Gallery And Video: Demo Burn Illustrates Need For Sprinklers

UP Fire lit two structures as part of a demonstration today to encourage people to install sprinkler systems in their homes.

UPDATE: The University Place Fire Department provided a photo gallery of today's demonstration. You can view the photos by clicking on the picture to the right. You can also watch a video of the demonstration by clicking here.

Firefighters talk all the time about how precious seconds can be.

They know how fast fire can engulf a bedroom. They know how flames can become deadly in three minutes or less. They say that, too often, people die in home fires because there simply wasn't enough time to escape.

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Today, the University Place Fire Department offered a live burn demonstration to show how fast flames can destroy a building.

"There's nothing like the heat and smoke of a real fire to help adults and children understand just how fast a home fire can spread," says UP Fire Assistant Chief Dave Dupille, who's also the city's fire marshal.

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The department hoped the display encourages people to install fire sprinkler systems in their homes, which it says is the best way to protect against fires.

The department  built two structures to simulate a room and contents of a typical home. Each room contained typical household furniture, window treatments and a working smoke alarm, but only one room had a fire sprinkler.

UP Fire said the simultaneous burn illustrated why homeowners should install sprinklers. According to the department, here some other reasons:

- Eight out of 10 fire deaths happen in the home.

- Installing both smoke alarms and fire sprinklers reduces the risk of home fire deaths by 82 percent.

- Ninety percent of fires are contained by the operation of one sprinkler head

- Sprinklers use on a fractions of the water used by fire department hoses.

- Fire sprinklers cut insurance premiums.

Today's demonstration took place in the gravel lot that's south of the building.


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