Bill Text: HI HR47 | 2011 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: Fire Safety; Automatic Fire Sprinklers; Family Dwellings

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 7-0)

Status: (Passed) 2011-03-31 - (H) Resolution adopted in final form. [HR47 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2011-HR47-Introduced.html

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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.R. NO.	47
TWENTY-SIXTH LEGISLATURE, 2011
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE RESOLUTION

 

 

Requesting the State Building Code Council to adopt the requirement that automatic fire sprinklers be installed in new one- and two-family dwellings.

 

 

 

     WHEREAS, the State is concerned with the health, safety, and welfare of its citizens; and

 

     WHEREAS, the State is concerned with providing fire protection to its citizens and property, and is concerned with protecting the safety of those fire fighters who respond to emergencies in the State; and

 

     WHEREAS, fire departments in the United States responded to an estimated 399,000 home structure fires in 2007, and these fires caused 2,865 civilian deaths, 13,600 civilian injuries, and $7,400,000,000 in direct damage; and

 

     WHEREAS, approximately eighty-four per cent of all civilian fire deaths in 2007 resulted from home structure fires, and an average of eight people died in U.S. home fires every day; and

 

     WHEREAS, in the City and County of Honolulu alone there were one hundred twenty home structure fires in 2007, resulting in two civilian deaths, twenty-three civilian injuries, and $9,600,000 in direct damage; and

 

     WHEREAS, in the City and County of Honolulu, one hundred per cent of all fire deaths, seventy-seven per cent of the fire injuries, and fifty-one per cent of the fire-related dollar loss in 2007 resulted from home structure fires; and

 

     WHEREAS, automatic fire sprinklers are a proven life-saving system that responds quickly and effectively to the presence of a nearby fire; and

 

     WHEREAS, the presence of sprinklers in the home reduces the chance of death in a fire by approximately eighty per cent; and

 

     WHEREAS, people in homes with sprinklers are protected against significant property loss, as sprinklers reduce the average property loss by seventy-one per cent per fire; and

 

     WHEREAS, two international building codes, the International Residential Code 2009 edition and the National Fire Protection Association 5000 Building and Construction and Safety Code 2009 edition, mandate fire sprinklers in new one- and two-family construction; and

 

     WHEREAS, the operation of just one sprinkler head contains fires approximately ninety per cent of the time; and

 

     WHEREAS, new construction is the most cost-effective method to install fire sprinklers; and

 

     WHEREAS, the State Building Code Council is studying the various issues related to implementing the requirement that automatic fire sprinklers be installed in new one- and two-family dwellings; now, therefore,

 

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-sixth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2011, that the State Building Code Council is requested to adopt the requirement that automatic fire sprinklers be installed in new one- and two-family dwellings, in compliance with the latest editions of nationally recognized safety codes; and

 

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Comptroller, the Chairperson of the State Building Code Council, the Chairperson of the State Fire Council, and the Fire Chief of each county.

 

 

 

	OFFERED BY:	_____________________________

Report Title: 

Fire Safety; Automatic Fire Sprinklers; Family Dwellings