Arlington Heights, Illinois, USA, 28 August 2018: The White Paper from Air Movement and Control Association International Inc., (AMCA), on the impact of Fire-Sprinkler Trade-offs on Occupant and Building Safety has given rise to much debate, said Scott Arnold, Manager of Industry Content and author of the paper.

Scott Arnold

The research, Arnold said, sets out to determine how trade-offs between active and passive safety features impact the resilience of buildings, the safety of their occupants and the health and safety of firefighters in the United States. Elaborating, he said, “All of the aggregate building safety metrics, fire safety, means of egress and general safety have decreased since the adoption of the International Codes (I-Codes).” The root cause of which, he said, required additional work. “More data needs to be collected to get to the bottom of why there has been a decline, if the declines are statistically significant and impact specific variables.”

However, Arnold said, “There is little real-world knowledge on how the favoured technology in a trade-off situation performs, once built or installed.” In case of fire sprinklers, he said, the trade-offs are believed to have much more to do with cost savings, as sprinklers tend to be more cost-effective in comparison to other fire protection systems.

Ranjana Konatt is Features Writer at Climate Control Middle East magazine. She may be contacted at ranjana@cpi-industry.com