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Cause and effect in our civilized world: people can be good, bad and careless. As these stories attest, provisions for fire safety need your continued support.

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Medical Facility Requirements in the 2009 International Fire Code

Among the plethora of new provisions unveiled for the 2009 IFC is this safety premium: All new and existing non-sprinklered hospitals, nursing homes, and other Group I-2 occupancies are to require automatic fire sprinkler protection. This welcome resolution is a code change that has been approved. Most jurisdictions currently enforce the 2006 IFC, so retrofit requirements will begin to be enforced as municipalities adopt the 2009 version of the I-codes. Currently, the IFC is adopted at the state or local level in more than 40 states.

There are approximately three million seniors (and disabled) currently residing in nursing homes across the U.S. These long-term care facilities are now required by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to provide fire sprinkler systems throughout their premises if they wish to serve Medicare beneficiaries. There is a five-year window for compliance, beginning on June 18, 2008. CMS executive Kerry Weems stated that CMS is taking this action "to protect the lives of our beneficiaries through a more comprehensive and effective approach to fire safety ... we now will hold all 16,000 nursing homes in the nation to this standard."

The rate for structures without sprinklers is 10.8 deaths per 1,000 fires, a rate that drops to 1.9 deaths per 1,000 fires in buildings that are fully sprinklered. Some U.S. states have enforced stringent requirements for many years to...

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