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Ed Kaplan Testimony

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Public Hearing for the Proposed Sprinkler Ordinance for Carroll Valley
September 14, 2004

Testimony of Ed Kaplan, Vice Chairman, Carroll Valley Planning Commission

Ladies and gentlemen of the Council. My name is Ed Kaplan and I am Vice Chairman of the Planning Commission. I have served on the commission for about 10 years. I am employed as an education program specialist at the U. S. Fire Administration’s National Fire Academy, where I’ve worked for nearly 26 years.
I am pleased to present the case for this important ordinance. The planning commission has studied this issue since last November. We had educational workshops on sprinkler-related issues. We heard from national experts and fire officials who have passed similar ordinances in their hometowns. We reviewed many other ordinances from around the country. We consulted Pennsylvania fire service leaders and national sprinkler groups. And, we consulted the Fairfield and Emmitsburg Fire Companies. In short, we did our homework.

On June 7, 2004, the Carroll Valley Planning Commission unanimously recommended to the Borough Council, adoption of a new ordinance that will reduce the loss of life and property resulting from residential fires. The ordinance will require fire sprinklers in new homes built in the borough.

The Council subsequently approved sending the draft ordinance to Pennsyl-vania Labor and Industry, the state office responsible for reviewing all ordinances that exceed the new Uniform Construction Code implemented earlier this year. Having achieved state approval, the Borough Council is now conducting its public hearing before it votes on the adoption of this life safety initiative tonight.

Home fires are deadly. Eighty percent of the nearly 4,000 annual fire deaths occur in homes. Of these deaths, children 14 and under and seniors 65 and over are most likely to die in home fires. Moreover, fire-related injuries present yet another problem. In 2002, there were 14,000 civilian injuries in residential fires, about one every half-hour. For Pennsylvanians, we have the dubious distinction of ranking 14th highest in the nation in the fire death rate between 1995 – 1999, the latest figures available from the U. S. Fire Administration and the National Fire Protection Association.

If adopted, our borough will be the first municipality in Adams County to have such an ordinance that saves lives and property from the horrible ravages of fire. We are by no means the first in the nation, let alone Pennsylvania. We will join the more than 700 other local governments throughout the nation currently realizing the benefits of residential sprinkler legislation.

This proposed ordinance is about community risk reduction. Our government adopts and implements codes and ordinances to reduce risks to our citizens because our first obligation is to their public safety.
The second reason is that successful risk reduction improves the quality of our lives and promotes economic development. For every home or business not built in a flood plain because of building restrictions, for every home or business where a crime is not committed because of vigilant policing, and for every home or business where a major fire loss is prevented because they were sprinklered, our quality of life is preserved.
Houses gutted by fire de-value the properties surrounding them. Businesses gutted by fires mean their owners lose money and their employees are often out of work.

Fire affects us all. Our neighbors suffer greatly. Our tax base is diminished. And our belief that the place where we feel the safest, in our homes, is shaken. Who among us was not affected when we heard that the historic Old Barn bed and breakfast had burned to the ground? Those owners are out-of-business forever and we lost the oldest building in the borough. And who among us was not affected when we heard about the fire on Black Bass Trail? Those homeowners lost much, including their dogs.

Moreover, fire victims are not the only ones affected by fire. Let’s not forget the fire fighters who risk their lives every day protecting your homes. Next to the building where I work is the National Fallen Fire Fighters Memorial where the names of over 100 fire fighters are annually engraved on monuments. I can tell you this: most, if not all their families would support this ordinance.
Why now?

Carroll Valley’s growth and development is part of the larger trend now occurring in the county. The Adams County Planning Office projects a 20-22% increase in the number of houses and population over the next six years. Specifically, the number of houses in the county will increase from 35,000 to 45,000 and the population from 96,000 to 117,000 residents. Moving into the county will be equally significant numbers of families with children and seniors seeking the tax-free pensions that Pennsylvania offers.

Our borough is the fastest growing in the state, percentage-wise, and coupled with an average of 50 new homes built annually, we can expect ground breaking next year on the 107-home development called the Crest at Carroll Valley. We can also expect that both fire-related high-risk groups, juveniles and seniors, to be among our new neighbors.

If these looming fire safety challenges weren’t enough, the Liberty Village developer, with its proposed 1,200 new homes, is only a court ruling away from moving forward with its plans. During Liberty’s public hearings on this proposed development, both the Emmitsburg and Fairfield Fire Companies have stated their current staffing and resource levels is no match for this projected increase of new homes.

With this growing need for fire protection on the one hand, and the struggling capabilities for those who provide it on the other, the need for a residential sprinkler ordinance has never been greater.

Our situation is but a microcosm of the larger challenge facing all Adams County’s volunteer fire and rescue services. Like Carroll Valley’s responding departments, efforts to recruit new fire fighters and fund the purchase of new apparatus and equipment are major expenses for a volunteer organization. Unchecked, like so many other communities in the U. S., our county will be confronted with the need to pay for fire and emergency services in order to provide adequate fire protection to its citizens.

Unlike all the other financial impacts of growth in areas of water, sewer, roads and municipal services, sprinklers reduce the tax demands on our local governments as their installations are paid for by the new residents who build in our community rather than we, the taxpayers who already live here. Given the anticipated rate of growth in the Fairfield area, indeed, all of Adams County, the failure to adopt sprinkler ordinances in all the high growth areas will inevitably create the need for a paid fire service. That means higher taxes for all of us.

If you doubt this, read the latest issue of the Emmitsburg Dispatch. It reported that the Emmitsburg town commissioners just voted for a 6.5% fire tax to fund two full-time EMTs for what currently is an all-volunteer ambulance company. While the county commissioners still must approve it, either way, this is only the beginning of the debates over how to pay for emergency services in the future. Sprinklers in new homes stems this tide and enables the volunteer fire companies to keep pace, at least for the foreseeable future, with the exploding housing growth in Adams County.

Carroll Valley’s leadership in passing this ordinance is not a step taken in isolation or without a national context. As I said, our responding fire companies have publicly called for such measures and Emmitsburg has been working on its own ordinance for more than a year. The U. S. Fire Administration in Emmitsburg has embarked on its National Residential Sprinkler Initiative and it is supported by every major fire service organization, including the National Fire Protection Association, International Association of Fire Chiefs and National Fallen Fire Fighters Foundation.

Misconceptions and misinformation abound when it comes to residential sprinklers. Commonly held myths include the belief that all home’s sprinkler heads will discharge during a fire’s initial phase, make new homes cost-prohibitive and are eyesores. These are, quite frankly, wrong. As ones directly affected by this new ordinance, builders, developers, realtors and new home owners should educate themselves about sprinkler systems and the myths that surround them.

Carroll Valley residents should look at the cost of fire in terms of potential lives lost, injuries suffered, economic hardships caused and life threatening risks to our first responders. Furthermore, they must make informed judgments about the costs versus the benefits to Carroll Valley, particularly when we overburden our already stressed responding fire departments with more homes and larger coverage areas.

One thing is for sure: No matter how prepared, fire departments cannot outrun fires. Fire sprinklers, though, can and do. Once the fire reaches 135 - 170 degrees, only the sprinkler above the point of origin is activated. The fire is usually out within two minutes using a minimal amount of water, about 300 gallons, rather than the 2,900 gallons a fire department will use to extinguish a typical residential fire. In Scottsdale, Arizona, where an ordinance has been in place since 1988, the evidence is clear: homes with sprinklers suffered an average loss of $2,200 while those without averaged about $45,000. More importantly not one Scottsdale resident has lost their life to fire in a sprinklered home. In fact, there is no record in the U. S. of any multiple resident fire deaths in a home that was sprinklered.

Ladies and gentlemen of the borough council, on behalf of your planning commission, I urge you to adopt this sprinkler ordinance. The citizens of our great community will be safer as will the first responders who protect them.
For the cost equal to a carpet upgrade or a hot tub, what new home buyer would not want to move into a safe community like ours?

Thank you.