Sprinklers Save Lives

The fire protection community would like to clarify our position with regards to loss of life in sprinkler protected buildings and international experience with fire sprinkler systems.

There has been some commentary in the media that fire sprinkler systems may not save lives. Sprinklers have a proven international record of saving lives.

Since the 1890s, approved sprinklers in New Zealand have achieved their fire control function in better than 99.5% of the fires in which they have operated.

The New Zealand Sprinkler standard provides a set of rules to enable sprinkler systems to reliably achieve their fire control function. This means keeping the fire small so it is not life threatening.

In the United States, the National Fire Protection Association has published information on sprinkler system effectiveness since 1897. A 2010 NFPA report indicates that the “NFPA has no record of a fire killing three or more people in a completely sprinklered building where the system was properly operating”.

New Zealand has no record of more than one person dying in a fire event in a building with a properly operating sprinkler system.

The fire protection community knows that sprinklers are highly successful in protecting life and property.

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