Dispelling the myths about sprinklers, Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service highlights the benefits of modern systems for both new builds and older properties.
This new year-long campaign led by the service’s Business Safety team will include Covid-safe events as well as interactive social media chats where local businesses can ask questions about how sprinklers work to extinguish fires at source.
The campaign will focus on different business sectors each month, including schools, factories, care home and small businesses.
Heading the campaign is Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service Business Safety Manager, Tracey Carter. She said: “Over the next year my team and I will be providing lots of information and advice to business owners and builders so they understand how sprinklers work and consider fitting them as a fire safety mechanism.
“We’ll also be dispelling the myths that have grown up around sprinklers. For example, it’s a common myth that sprinkler systems go off accidentally and cause excess water damage. It’s also a myth that they cost lots of money to install! What they are designed for is to protect life and property and improve firefighter safety.
“A modern sprinkler system would actually limit damage, helping a business get back up and running quicker, as they limit water to the site of a fire, and some insurance companies even offer large discounts for buildings protected by sprinklers.”
Likened to having a firefighter in every room, sprinklers detect heat above a certain level and activate letting out a spray of water into the affected room.
Emphasising the indiscriminate nature of fire, Area Manager Lee Shears said:
“It destroys lives, homes, families, businesses and history that cannot be replaced. Every year people are needlessly killed and seriously injured in fires. People are made homeless as a result of fire, businesses collapse and people lose their livelihoods because of it - lives and properties that could have been saved with the simplest addition of a sprinkler system.
“It is a well-known fact that many businesses that suffer from significant fires and fire damage never return to operation. Sprinklers can safeguard against that and significantly improve business continuity.”
For more information about the campaign, visit Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service.
The FPA is one of the leading experts for sprinkler system inspections, head testing, pipework testing and water mist testing.
For more information about the FPA's sprinkler services, visit: https://www.thefpa.co.uk/sprinkler-services.