National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) steps up campaign for mandatory home sprinkler systems Florida Construction News staff writer he National Fire Prevention As- sociation (NFPA) conference, the fire safety advocacy organization has stepped up its campaign for resi- dential sprinkler systems – and an on- going conflict with home builders, T 20 – SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2015 — Florida Construction News who believe mandatory sprinkler systems unneces- sarily increase construction costs for relatively limited life-saving advan- tages. NFPA president Jim Pauley doesn’t buy the relative cost argument, ob- serving that “3,000 people dying annu- ally from fire in the most advanced country in the world is still too high – especially where the majority of fire is happening where people are feeling safest, in their homes.” The sprinkler argument has been at the core of the NFPA since its estab- lishment in the late 1800s, and Pauley says the cost argument was made then as well, as the association lob- bied for mandatory sprinklers in indus- trial buildings, along with other enhancements to improve fire safety. The track record indicates there has been success, especially in recent decades. Annual U.S. fire loss costs (in 2012 dollars) have declined from between $17 and $18 billion in the late 1970s to less than $12 billion in 2013 – and deaths have declined by about 50 percent, from approximately 7,500 to 3,200. “Today, almost 80 percent of fires occur in homes,” Pauley says. This means that the call for mandatory sprinkler systems is “absolutely a big priority – we try to use the data to ac- tually guide us where we need to be putting our emphasis, with the major- ity of deaths there.” Home builders have put out counter-arguments. One study they