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"  About 3000 Americans die in house fires every year. Beginning in January 2011, a change to the International Residential Code (IRC) aims to reduce that number by making fire sprinklers mandatory in all new single-family residences. Sounds good, but home-building lobbies from Texas to Georgia have defied what they call an impractical, expensive mandate, convincing legislators to pass bills overriding the requirement. &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;re not against residential fire sprinklers\u2014as a voluntary measure,&amp;quot; says Steven Orlowski, program manager for construction, codes and standards at the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB). &amp;quot;A building code provides the minimum balance between cost, safety and welfare. You could do everything to the nth degree and get 100 percent safety, but that&amp;#039;s not the purpose of the code.&amp;quot;  The sprinkler mandate was one of 2400 code change proposals in the past IRC revision. The NAHB took a position on 960 proposals, with an eye on one particular concern: &amp;quot;You have a number of manufacturers trying to promote a specific product,&amp;quot; Orlowski says. According to the NAHB&amp;#039;s communications director, Calli Schmidt, &amp;quot;The only way for sprinkler manufacturers to make money is to focus on mandates. Otherwise, they&amp;#039;re not financially feasible.&amp;quot; Maria Figueroa, of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), turns that argument back on the builders, saying their reluctance to embrace expanded rules is driven by a desire to sell houses. &amp;quot;Protecting lives should be a priority over profits,&amp;quot; she says. The California Building Industry Association estimates sprinklers will add about $5000 to the price of a new home. To reduce costs, plumbing-systems manufacturer Uponor has devised a simplified AQUASAFE system that ties into the home&amp;#039;s existing cold-water supply. &amp;quot;Our system integrates with the home&amp;#039;s plumbing, like another fixture, faucet or toilet,&amp;quot; Uponor product manager Jayson Drake says. Insurance discounts of about 10 percent a month also chip away at the price, according to Jim Lindahl, a State Farm agent in Minnetonka, Minn. &amp;quot;With sprinklers, the cost and volume of the claims go down, and the severity of the claims go down. When we get to a house that has sprinklers, the damage is so much less,&amp;quot; he says. The fire survival rate in homes with working smoke detectors is 99.41 percent, according to the NFPA. Toss in a sprinkler, and the rate rises to 99.6 percent. &amp;quot;Consider how little it costs to install smoke alarms,&amp;quot; Orlowski says. &amp;quot;For the cost of the sprinklers, you&amp;#039;re really not getting a significant increase in safety.&amp;quot; But you are, for better or worse, buying a house that&amp;#039;s built to the latest code. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/how-to/a6146/the-fight-over-fire-sprinklers-in-new-homes/>