Action on fire sprinklers stalls in House panel

A bill that would allow local planning commissions to hold public hearings about where fire districts could mandate sprinkler systems momentarily stalled Thursday in the House Political Subdivisions Committee.

The committee held HB116 after sponsoring Rep. David Ure, R-Kamas, agreed to work with members of the firefighter community to ease some concerns the firefighters had about losing power.

Ure drafted the bill because of local fire officials whom he said were a little too enthusiastic. Fire districts, he said, are requiring sprinkler systems in affordable housing units that aren't in areas that could start forest fires.

The bill doesn't take all of the fire districts' authority away, but if there is someone who doesn't want to install sprinkler systems, the bill gives him or her the right to a public hearing.

"The best thing my bill does is it drives the process publicly," Ure said.

This would allow planning and zoning commissions to still demand sprinklers in private individual structures located in canyons but would cut down on unneeded costs in cities.

The reason houses in canyons are required to have sprinkler systems is because if one house burns down, everything in the canyon could burn down.

Scott Adams, a Park City firefighter and the president of the International Fire Association, was apprehensive about the implications of the bill and spoke against it at the hearing.

"We don't just go in there and demand arbitrarily that affordable housing have fire sprinkler systems," he said.

The United States has one of the highest death fire death rates among first-world countries, Adams pointed out, saying that the fire districts don't want to lose all their power in fighting fires.

"I agree (the sprinkler requirements) are in place for our own health and safety, but they are making everything so dang safe that I don't want to live anymore," Ure said.

Todd Bingham of the Utah Farm Bureau Association thinks that although the safety of some communities is ensured by the fire districts' decisions, other communities feel the burden of the requirements.

Fire marshals will demand farms in the middle of nowhere have the sprinkler systems, "and it's a huge expense for these homeowners," he said.

Ure also thinks that this is about private-property rights.

"A man's private home, I believe, is his castle. If you're going to mandate sprinkler systems into every home, who's going to check it?

"(Whoever comes to my house) better bring his gun, because you're not getting in without a fight," he said.

Political Subdivisions Vice Chairwoman Susan Lawrence, R-East Millcreek, said that after Ure works out the bill's issues, the revised bill will be placed on the top of the committee's agenda.