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Should the Mountain View Whisman School District install fire sprinklers in all of its buildings?
It is a safe bet that Steven Nelson will be pushing for just that once he takes his seat on the district’s board of trustees.
At the Nov. 15 school board meeting, board member-elect Nelson gave a presentation to the current trustees. Quoting a local fire official who advocated for all districts in the state to pledge to install fire sprinklers in all school buildings, Nelson said he would like to see the district use Measure G bond funds to install sprinklers in all the buildings where children spend a significant amount of time. There are laws which allow districts to forgo the installation sprinklers in certain instances.
“Something like 2 percent of the 200 million (dollars projected to be raised by Measure G) could put sprinklers in all the students’ classrooms,” Nelson told the Voice.
Those unfamiliar with the laws surrounding fire sprinklers might presume that all schools would be required to install them — especially in new buildings.
However, schools have long been subject to different building code laws than business and residential buildings. For a long time, districts were not required to install automatic fire sprinklers. As a result, many, if not most, of the buildings in the Mountain View Whisman School District do not have sprinklers.
A law passed in 2002, the Green Oaks Family Academy Elementary School Fire Protection Act, said that all new school buildings would be required to have sprinklers, and that schools engaging in significant improvement projects would have to put sprinklers in old buildings they were retrofitting. But that law had one exception. “Private and parochial school projects and public school projects 100 per cent funded by local funds are not required to install automatic fire alarm systems under this law.”
Because the Student Facilities Improvement Plan will be funded entirely by local funds, the district doesn’t have to install fire alarm systems and sprinklers if officials don’t want to.
Superintendent Craig Goldman said he wouldn’t rule out the installation of such systems in certain instances. But he said that automatically triggered fire sprinklers do a great deal more to protect property than they do to protect human life, noting that no student has died from a school fire in California since the passage of the Field Act in 1933. Because automatic sprinklers cost money to install and maintain, and because they are more likely to help save property — which can be insured for less money — Goldman said he was hesitant to pledge to install automatic sprinklers across the board.
“There’s no evidence that suggests the addition of automatic sprinklers will improve upon the safety of the children and staff,” Goldman said. “The position of the administration is, that as stewards for local taxpayer funding, it would not be appropriate for us to make such a pledge. Ultimately we should be considering each project on a case-by-case basis.”
In a statement, the City of Mountain View Fire Department said the MVFD recognizes the benefits of having automatic fire detection and fire protection systems in facilities and homes within the community. “We also recognize that there is a large dollar amount tied to retrofitting older construction with these types of systems. Currently elementary schools are required by the California Code of Regulations to conduct monthly fire drills using a standard alerting device, ensuring that there is a standard and consistent response from students and faculty. Ultimate jurisdiction over all aspects over public school construction lies with the Department of the State Architect and local amendments do not apply.”
Nelson said that the potential loss of life should not be the only metric taken into account when considering the installation of fire sprinklers. Automatic sprinklers can greatly reduce the impact a fire has on a structure, and they have the potential to limit a fire from spreading out of the room where it begins. The difference between one room being slightly burnt, and a multitude of classrooms burning down is significant, he said, as it could be the difference from a school being slightly disrupted and a school being entirely shut down for an extended period of time.
Nelson acknowledged that installing sprinklers as a matter of policy, instead of selectively, would cost more money, but he said it would be worth it. Even if the sprinklers aren’t statistically likely to help save a life, there is a chance they could, he said. Plus, teachers leave many materials in their classrooms that have sentimental value or that they purchased using their own money.
Pointing to the July 2010 fire at Trace Elementary School in San Jose, Nelson wondered whether fire sprinklers might have saved that school from losing more than 12 classrooms. “It was the teachers at Trace Elementary that were most impacted,” he said.
Installing expensive sprinkler systems that are designed to protect property when there are cheaper ways to protect that property just on the off chance that doing so “might” save a life when there has been no loss of life in a school fire since 1933? What a waste of money!
I am grateful that the public schools in Mountain View (all three districts) have not lost a life to fire since 1933. But I do not accept the argument that merely saving property is not enough to justify sprinklers.
I hope the school districts will work toward sprinklers in all school and office rooms in a prudent and expeditious way.
“…teachers leave many materials in their classrooms that have sentimental value or that they purchased using their own money….”
Sentimental value? How about just to be able to teach! About the only thing inside a classroom that came with the job is the desks, textbooks, soap, and paper towels. Teachers get a small budget for classroom supplies, a copy machine code that allocates a certain number of copies, and access to some basic office and art supplies. The great majority of teachers spend thousands of dollars on everything else that you see inside the classroom.
Goldman needs to ask himself: Is it important to protect the tremendous amount of personal property that the hundreds of teachers in MVWSD keep at in their classroom?
Sounds to me like Nelson is thinking about the needs of students and teachers, which is a good attitude coming onto this school board.
If there’s a fire during the school day, kids could be injured or killed.
In Chicago, a fire that started small in a private elementary school, Our Lady of the Angels, tragically killed 87 young children and 3 teachers.
Most likely, had the building been sprinklered, no one would have died.
For more see:
http://www.olafire.com/FireSummary.asp
Fire Insurance for a fire sprinklered building is often less than half the cost of the same building that is not sprinklered. So over time, the systems will pay for themselves.
Many businesses like Supermarkets studied this, and invest in sprinklers whether or not there are laws (or loopholes) when the payback is seven years or less. That’s why most have been sprinklered for years. And they work- when have you heard of a grocery fire?
Political reasons: Recent CA. laws now require fire sprinklers in ALL new residential buildings, like hotels, apartments, and even homes, and new schools but they did not require going back to existing, unless there is a major remodel.
Yet the existing buildings are just as likely or more likely to have a fire.
And remember insurance will not bring back your children, or help with the months or years it may take to rebuild, at taxpayer expense. Think of how traveling across town to overcrowd an undamaged school affects all those involved, even if the fire is at night..
AND many public entities are “self-insured”, which really means NOT insured.
James Art
Fire Protection Engineer
Livermore, Ca
I intend for this discussion to continue with significant other expert and community input. It seems that to date the most input to the District has been by the architect to the Facilities Plan, who does not put sprinkler system in school buildings under his design control.
I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Nelson. It is amazing that many California schools today do not have fire alarm connections to a first responder, such as a fire department/fire district, and/or automatic sprinkler systems.
There is a new nonprofit called Ring The Bell Fund that was established in November 2012 to help raise funds for, the awareness of, and educate the public on the importance of having monitored fire alarm infrastructure and automatic sprinklers in schools to ensure the safety of our children, school property, and neighborhoods. Our website is http://www.RingTheBellFund.org. I hope you’ll visit it and look forward to your feedback and comments.
Thank you, Mr. Nelson, for fighting to keep our communities and schools safe!
Virginia Chang Kiraly
President & Founder
Ring The Bell Fund
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