It’s important on any research to know who’s funding and promoting the results
– I think Mike’s point. While being funded by the industry doesn’t necessarily
mean the research is false, it reduces the research’s credibility. The site
belongs to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). The research
“facts” posted are hugely positive to sprinklers with no counter arguments that
you’d expect from a neutral source. It certainly looks like a source for
promoting and selling sprinkler systems and regulations requiring these systems.
I did one level of digging into who they are. Being a “.Org” only means
they’re a non-profit but doesn’t mean they’re non-biased. Their listed board
of directors includes FEMA – so some of the funding may be from grants from
FEMA, but doesn’t necessarily mean it’s neutral. There are several Fire
protection organizations which are probably more neutral but also probably not
significant funding sources. A couple of insurance companies (including a
Marshall Fire favorite State Farm) which definitely would like consumers to pay
for systems that would reduce their claims – so certainly a bias towards the
sprinkler industry.
Following the money provides some insight. The organizations that have money
to spend on this type of thing would be:
* The insurance companies
* FEMA grants may be another source of funding, but difficult to say
whether they would moderate any research bias since politics is a large factor
for them
* There are four .Orgs that appear to be sprinkler industry members
(manufacturers, installers) on the board. Without specifically seeing the
financing of the organization, I can only assume that they are large financers
of the research conducted and deciders on what gets published. The fact that
these board members are also non-profits appears to be another layer of
insulation from the actually industry businesses supporting this stuff.
I’m not an investigative reporter, but it seems like they would attempt to get
more definite facts about this like:
* What’s the real flow of money into NFPA?
* What research that they funded did they choose not to publish?
* Where do the NFPA employees come from?
* Who’s supporting the next layer down on the non-profit orgs
Dealing with all the stuff we have to do with our losses along with doing my
day job means I can’t invest more time into investigating this stuff. My
conclusion from looking at this is that the research they use is questionable
and biased and shouldn’t be used to force all the people struggling with
rebuilding to spend a lot of money to install them.
Richard
From: originaltown-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <originaltown-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> On
Behalf Of Mike Sisk
Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2022 7:26 PM
To: originaltown@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [OriginalTown] Re: food for thought on auto-sprinkler requirement
I am curious as to where the funding comes from for homesprinkler.org ? Is it
an association group funded by those that install fire sprinklers?
On Apr 21, 2022, at 6:16 PM, Ross Morgan <ross@xxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:ross@xxxxxxxxxxxx> > wrote:
More food for thought.
Here is the website that the Town’s Chief Building Official, Tim Moroney, will
base his presentation on at Monday night's meeting.
https://homefiresprinkler.org/ ;
From: originaltown-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:originaltown-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> <originaltown-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:originaltown-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> > On Behalf Of Daryl McCool
Sent: Thursday, April 21, 2022 3:12 PM
To: Town Board <townboard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<mailto:townboard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> >
Cc: originaltown@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:originaltown@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [OriginalTown] food for thought on auto-sprinkler requirement
New York City has a high density of tall buildings and a population density
that is also very high. For this reason, it should come as no surprise that the
fire protection requirements in NYC are among the most demanding in the world,
yet NYC code makes automatic sprinkler systems optional in:
a. Detached one-family dwellings.
b. Detached two-family dwellings.
c. Townhouses, also known as multiple single-family dwellings.
https://www.ny-engineers.com/blog/residential-sprinkler-systems-in-new-york-city
