The Home Depot may be closed for at least part of this weekend after a sprinkler head malfunctioned in the Kings Highway Cutoff store Friday night and flooded it with water, firefighters said.
"You can swim in here," Fire Chief Richard Felner said, adding that the mega-store would have been better off having a fire.
Felner said the sprinkler head near the front of the store, by the plumbing aisle, was spraying water for around 40 minutes and that merchandise in four aisles was soaked. The water wasn't confined to those aisles, though. Felner said it had spread throughout the store. "It just keeps spreading out. There's nothing to hold it in," he said.
Felner said a cleaning crew was due to come in Friday night to begin mop up operations and he said the store almost certainly would be closed Saturday.
Employees outside the store Friday night turned customers away but said the store should be open Saturday because cleanup crews would be working all night. The store was open when the sprinkler head went off, and the parking lot was wet with water.
Firefighters aren't sure why the sprinkler head malfunctioned. Felner said the head, which is about 40 feet in the air, wasn't near a source of heat, and it may have just been old or rusted. "There's nothing up there that set it off. It could have been a faulty head," he said.
Felner said the head shot water over a 15-foot radius and that the water spread all over the store. He estimated it was about an inch deep across the store by the time firefighters could shut off the head. He estimated damage from the incident at $50,000.
There are no guarantees in life; that's why we buy insurance. No matter how strict a building code people are still going to do stupid things like unattended cooking, smoking in bed, plugging too many appliances into an electrical socket, etc. I suppose we could line all living spaces with asbestos; that would stop fires but then everyone could get lung cancer. We could legislate that everyone must wear a fireproof body suit but that's not practical, either. We just have consider the risk vs. reward factor and get on with life. In my opinion the risk of dying in a fire in a detached single family dwelling does not justify the cost of a sprinkler system. If it did, life insurance companies, with all their actuarial tables, would offer a discount to those who had these systems installed in their homes.
ReplyDeleteThere must be some pretty heavy duty lobbying going on with these things. I wonder who the politians or other government officals are that stand to make money on this idea?
ReplyDeleteHome insurance offers a discount to those who have sprinklers in their home. The thing is--with sprinklers, if your house catches fire you can sleep there that night. Without sprinklers you may be dead, of course, but you won't have a house for months or more.
ReplyDeleteAnd this article is highly biased to be posted in this context. This NEVER happens. You never hear of a head just failing, because it rarely happens. Probably a better chance of being struck by lightning... Don't be a Joe Albero. Why not post an article of a life saved?
http://wcfmo.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=192:september-22-2010-residential-fire-sprinklers&catid=36:press-releases&Itemid=78
10:31- that's the million dollar question! I'll just bet if they were to come up with a solution to remedy home intrusions home builders would buy it.
ReplyDeleteOne thing for sure. If you build a home that needs city water and sewer you can believe there is money in it for that town. The hardest part for most people to swallow is the fact that this may NOT be an option.........working man screwed again.
Wow? Really? You censored my post? Wow. You really are like Joe Albero. Anything that severely counters your view does not get posted.
ReplyDeleteHomeowners insurance does give you a deduction for residential sprinklers.
ReplyDeleteStop thinking of the government this and the government that and think about what this actually means. Like I've said before if the public had a choice to save a few grand and not have seatbelts and airbags they would! Just like people are balking at the idea of required sprinklers.
I want my next home to be sprinklered. If I have to retrofit, there will be an ENORMOUS cost. If the house already has it--Then I can live protected for a very small relative cost.
Just look at this photo. Yes it comes from the WCFM, as it seems like many people like this blog fail to post anything positive about sprinklers.
http://wcfmo.org/images/stories/PR/sprinklercomborz.jpg
And not to mention my comments about this never happening! Sprinkler heads rarely fail, that's a FACT! You never hear of this happening!
ReplyDeletePlease, stop railing against something just because the government is trying to make it law. Take the time to educate yourselves on the benefits and why this is being done. It's a worthwhile cause. Its cost effective. And it saves lives. Don't say no to something you don't even know about. I have seen the fire marshal's presentation and it is very compelling, hence why I linked to his site. Please check out the article. http://wcfmo.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=192:september-22-2010-residential-fire-sprinklers&catid=36:press-releases&Itemid=78
This just reminds me of accidents I've seen where people don't wear their seatbelts. It just makes me shake my head. People are maimed and seriously injured (sometimes killed) by accidents that would've left some cuts and bruises if they were belted. What's even worse? Seeing other belted occupants injured or killed by another occupant thrown about because they weren't belted. That happens.
ReplyDeleteSeatbelt law = sprinkler law. Sometimes the government has to protect us from ourselves for the good of the majority. The cost of installing a sprinkler system is roughly 2-3% of the cost of a house. For comparison... So are granite countertops.
If you censor all of my comments-- You're losing a reader. I enjoyed reading this site as I thought it was devoid of the bs all the other blogs bring to the table. But apparently I was wrong. Comment moderation is supposed to be so you can get rid of foul language or trash talk, but its being used by you, Albero, and others as a way to control the opinions of readers. And you call yourself a patriotic free-speech loving American. Bloggers are a bunch of hypocrites.
ReplyDeleteAnon 11:32 What post are you talking about? I assure you all comments are posted as they come in.
ReplyDeleteAnon 11:47 Please accept my apologies. Your comment went to SPAM for some reason.
ReplyDeleteFYI - there have only been a few times when we have not posted a comment. Sorry you feel the way you do about this blog now but you have to remember that mistakes do happen and it was just an oversite. Be assured if anyone leaves a comment I can NOT publish the writer will know why. Differences in an opinion is NOT a good reason to censor.
Maybe insurance companies are at this point giving some discounts for having a sprinkler system, but what happens when they do get old and the heads start to rust or whatever?
ReplyDeleteIs that going to be the end of the discounts? And are the rates going to be hirer due to a higher chance of malfunction?
Are these going to end up like smoke detectors? Everytime there is a fire fatality it seems to be reported that there were non functioning smoke detectors in the structure.
I also remembering reading a few years ago, about some renters who were found to have activated sprinkers on purpose so the Red Cross would come in and give them new stuff!!!! This will also no doubt be a problem.
And what about those homeowners policies that require the homeowner to shut off the main water when leaving for an extended period of time? Some condo documents also require owners to shut down their main water supply to their units when leaving for more than 48 hours.
ReplyDeleteNationally non working smoke detectors overwhelmingly contributed to fire related deaths.
ReplyDeleteHow about the officials getting this mandate enforced before coming up with something new?
11:08, I just checked with the Insurance Information Institute and actually very few sprinkler systems qualify for a discount in homeowners premiums. It is basically limited to those that ring to a monitoring station, who in turn charge a monthly fee.
ReplyDeleteto those that are not seeing their comments please accept our apologies there is something going on that some comments are not posting, I can see them in the section where we approve the comments and I can assure you we are NOT censoring any comments.
ReplyDeleteI have read every comment and there are several that are not posting on the blog even after being approved for some reason.
I am going to open the comments to see if that takes care of the problem.
again to those readers that commented and do not see their comment I do apologize and I assure you we did not censor or delete the comment it is something to do with blogger and I am looking into it now.
Thanks for reading PPE
Tom
comments are now open and do not require moderation, maybe this will fix the problem until I can find out why some comments are not being published, please refrain from any foul language as I may just leave the comment section un-moderated if it stays clean and respectful so far we have not had that problem anyway.
ReplyDeleteThanks
Tom
Yep, any system, no matter how simple or sophisticated, can get out of whack at any time for any reason and really screw things up.. This is true whether the system is computer software, hardware or just a simple home sprinkler
ReplyDeleteThank you. Just used to being censored on Albero's blog for posting points contrary to his own.
ReplyDeleteYou can delete my comments about being censored ;) I saw other comments being posted with later timestamps than my own and assumed censorship.
People.. Your home plumbing can malfunction just as easy as a sprinkler system. Sprinkler heads are mechanical and can only be activated by heat melting the filament (Or carelessly whacking them). The Home Depot story is an isolated case. That just doesn't happen that often, and honestly if it wasn't whacked then it was probably whacked by a forklift operator at some point in its life.
Smoke detectors are mandated now--Hardwired in. They can't mandate retrofits but new construction requires them.
If you want to talk about systems get out of whack airbags or seatbelts can malfunction but they're pretty dang reliable and we trust them. Same for sprinklers.
Sorry for my rants and accusations of censorship (Though under the circumstances I believed it to be happening) This is a topic I really believe in and I hate to see the pro-sprinkler side suppressed or ignored. Many of these comments seem to be shutting down the idea of mandated sprinklers without considering exactly what is being offered.
ReplyDeleteWhat will we need fire department for then? We already have a fire hydrant on every block and new 'fittings' that the town recently purchased!
ReplyDeleteQuestion is: how much will the permits cost eventually that one will have to have to install these? Eventually anyone who renovates will have to have these installed too.
Yes, it is coming, too.
BIG GOVERNMENT!
Our local government just takes everything hook line and sinker and they have the option to 'opt' out!