Comparing the performance of residential fire sprinklers with other life-safety technologies.
Residential fire sprinklers have long proven themselves as life-safety technologies to the fire service community. Yet, about 1% of all one- and two-family dwelling fires occur in homes protected by sprinklers. It has been argued that measured sprinkler performance has ignored factors confounding the relationship between sprinkler use and performance. In this analysis, sprinkler performance is measured by comparing 'like' structure fires, while conditioning on smoke detection technology and neighborhood housing and socioeconomic conditions, using propensity score matching. Results show that residential fire sprinklers protect occupant and firefighter health and safety, and are comparable to other life-safety technologies.
National Institute of Standards and Technology, 100 Bureau Drive, Mailstop 8603, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-8603,USA. david.butry@nist.gov
David T
DT
Butry
D017278:Air Bags / Q000592:standards; D019985:Benchmarking; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D005388:Fire Extinguishing Systems / Q000592:standards*; D005390:Fires / Q000191:economics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D057216:Propensity Score; D012111:Residence Characteristics; D012449:Safety / Q000592:standards*; D012622:Seat Belts / Q000592:standards; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014481:United States; D026712:Value of Life; D014867:Water
D014867:Water