| Statement of The Honorable Curt Weldon, a Representative in Congress from the State of Pennsylvania Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Select Revenue Measures
of the House Committee on Ways and Means November 16, 2005 Thank you for the opportunity
to testify before the Committee on HR 1131, The Fire Sprinkler Incentive Act of
2005. Passage of HR 1131 would serve to reduce the tremendous annual economic
and human losses that fire inflicts each year. This bill currently has 140
cosponsors, 15 of which are members of the Ways and Means Committee.
From the time a fire begins,
detection can be reported within the first 3 minutes. Once dispatched,
firefighter response begins at 4 minutes, with anticipated arrival on scene and
suppression set up within 10 minutes. By this time, the level of combustion
has grown exponentially, leading to flashover two minutes earlier. Flashover
is the level of combustion that engulfs the entire room in flames – an
environment that no person can survive.
Meanwhile, the 70% of smoke
alarms that are functional (30% do not work, mostly due to dead or non-existent
batteries) have alerted building occupants to escape through pre-planned
evacuation routes. Unfortunately, the elderly, unattended children and the
mentally or physically disabled are often unable to do so.
Fires in structures occur
like clockwork at a rate of one a minute, every hour of every day. In the U.S., fire departments responded to 526,000 structure fires in 2004 (out of a total of 1.55
million fire calls and a total of 22.6 million emergency response calls of all
types). These structure fires accounted for nearly all the civilian fire
deaths (3,305 in 2004), nearly all the civilian fire injuries (15,525 in 2004),
nearly all the damaged property ($8.3 billion in 2004), and dozens of
fireground deaths of firefighters. This translates into a fire department
response to a structure fire every 60 seconds and to a fatal structure fire
every 3 hours. And the best available evidence consistently and clearly shows
that most of that loss could have been prevented by reliable, effective fire
sprinklers.
The solution resides in
automatic sprinkler systems that are usually triggered within 4 minutes of
ignition when the temperature rises above 120 degrees. The National Fire
Protection Association (NFPA) has no record of a fire killing more then two
people in a fully operational sprinklered public assembly, educational,
institutional or residential building. Furthermore, sprinklers are responsible
for dramatically reducing property loss.
Fire sprinklers are the
single most effective method for fighting the spread of fires in their early
stages – before they can cause severe injury to people and damage to property.
There are literally thousands of high-rise buildings built under older building
and fire codes that lack adequate fire protection. Ironically, billions of
dollars were spent to make these and other buildings handicapped accessible;
however people with disabilities now occupying these buildings are not
adequately protected from fire.
Last year, representatives of
the health care industry testified that there are approximately 4,200 nursing
homes that need to be retrofitted with fire sprinklers. They further testified
that the billion dollar-plus cost of protecting these buildings with fire
sprinklers would have to be raised through corresponding increases in Medicare
and Medicaid.
In addition to the alarming
number of nursing homes lacking fire sprinkler protection, there are literally
thousands of assisted living facilities housing older Americans and people with
disabilities that lack fire sprinkler protection.
In early 2003, the “Station”
nightclub fire in Rhode Island killed 100 occupants. Today there are still thousands
of similar nightclubs and entertainment venues that need to be retrofitted with
fire sprinklers.
Building owners do not argue
with fire authorities over the logic of protecting their buildings with fire
sprinklers. The issue is cost. Passage of HR 1131 would drastically reduce the
staggering annual economic toll of fire in America and thereby dramatically
improve the quality of life for everyone involved.
Benefits of the Fire
Sprinkler Incentive Act also include lower local fire department costs,
increased loan activity, reduced insurance claims and premium costs, larger
numbers of retrofitting and installation jobs, and generation of payroll tax
revenue. Most importantly, this bill saves lives.
HR 1131 encourages property
owners to install fire sprinkler systems by reducing the tax depreciation time
on nonresidential real property from 39 to only 5 years.
The installation of fire
sprinklers is a high priority for the fire service and others who are concerned
with the protection of American lives and property. The following
organizations have already pledged their support for this Act:
All 45 members of the Congressional
Fire Services Institute National Advisory Committee, which includes all major
National Fire Service Organizations (by resolution)
National Fire Sprinkler
Association
American Fire Sprinkler
Association
Mechanical Contractors
Association
American Insurance
Association
Independent Insurance Agents
and Brokers of America
The Associated General
Contractors of America
The Lightning Safety Alliance
American Society of Safety
Engineers
American Health Care
Association
Underwriters Laboratories,
Inc.
International Codes Council
American Institute of
Architects
Building Owners and Managers
Association
Home Safety Council
Year after year, the facts
stare us square in the face, costing thousands of lives and billions of
dollars, but no efforts are made to install sprinkler systems in older
buildings or those in jurisdictions that do not require fire sprinklers, due to
one reason: cost.
With the support of every
fire service and related association in America, Representative James Langevin
and I introduced the Fire Sprinkler Incentive Act, HR 1131. This bill provides
a tax incentive for businesses to install sprinklers through the use of a 5 year
depreciation period, as opposed to the current 27.5 or 39 year period for
installation in residential rental and non-residential real property, respectively.
While only a start, this important legislation will help reduce the senseless losses
seen in nursing homes, nightclubs, office buildings, apartment buildings,
manufacturing facilities and other for-profit entities.
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