Recent Fires Highlight Desperate Need for Fire Sprinklers

Letter to the Editor:

As some readers may already know, a fire ignited in an apartment unit in Bayonne on Tuesday, August 26th after a curling iron was left on in a towel in the bedroom. Though firefighters responded quickly to the call, the fire had already spread to the bed and up the wall before they were able to get the blaze under control. The four residents living in the unit were displaced and a neighboring tenant suffered a heart attack.

Later that day, a large home in Clifton was severely damaged in a fire. The home was a doggy day-care in which 14 dogs and three cats perished in the flames. On the same day a meat-market in Piscataway was destroyed by fire and the following night a church in Paterson burned to the ground.

I am grateful that there were no people were killed, but I am also sorry for the financial loss and the heartbreak for the families involved. So often opponents for fire sprinkler systems cite the number of lives lost each year and the cost of installation as reasons that fire sprinkler systems are not worth it. I would beg to differ. I suspect that if you ask the people who lost their pets, the people who lost their home, the people who lost their business and the people who lost their place of worship each one would tell you that they wish there was more protection. I suspect those people would look at the additional 1% of the overall building cost and determine it a wise investment.

A fire sprinkler system helps to save lives and protect property by controlling and typically extinguishing a fire before firefighters even arrive on the scene; something which could have greatly improved the situation in Bayonne. A bill currently in the New Jersey Senate would call for all newly constructed one- and two-family homes as well as condominiums and town homes to be equipped with fire sprinklers. I urge you to support S2316 otherwise known as The New Home Fire Safety Act, so that New Jersey residents are afforded the safety they deserve.

Sincerely,

David Kurasz

Executive Director of the New Jersey Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board