Lakeland, FL – Fire prevention and safety are among the key considerations when owning or building a new home. Recently, two influential spokespersons – Lorraine Carli, Vice President of the National Fire Protection Association (NFPT), and L. A. ‘Tony’ Kovach, manufactured home industry consultant and Publisher of MHProNews.com and MHLivingNews.com – discussed the pros and cons regarding the installation of fire sprinklers in manufactured homes.

Ms. Carli and Mr. Kovach agree that fire prevention and the installation of fire alarms in any home are very important safety features.

According to a recent article, Keeping the Home Fires from Burning – written by Jan Hollingsworth, an award-winning consumer affairs journalist – the National Association of Home Builders’ (NAHB) “Priced Out” report states that mandating a sprinkler system in manufactured homes could leave hundreds of thousands of potential home buyers out of the market nationally for each $1,000 of price increase.

A majority of manufactured homeowners reside in rural parts of the country, according to statistics cited in Hollingsworth's report. In many of these areas, families rely on private underground wells and narrow water lines as their primary water source – which makes installing a sprinkler system an unviable option for any type of home.

Ms. Carli does not rebuke that claim. Rather, she focuses on saving lives, stating, “Rural communities tend to have volunteer fire departments that will take longer to respond to a fire. Fire sprinklers can control a fire until the fire department arrives.”

“The comparison of fire experience post-HUD standard manufactured homes with other one – or two-family homes showed that the newer manufactured homes had a lower fire death rate per 100,000 properties. However, the group of other one- or two-family homes included many run-down homes. Sprinklers save lives in all types of homes. The most cost-effective time to install sprinklers is during original construction and installation.” – Lorraine Carli, V.P. – Outreach and Advocacy at the National Fire Protection Association

Mr. Kovach does not dispute the value fire sprinklers, which can play an important role in fire prevention and safety in all forms of construction -- perhaps most notably in multi-family housing -- citing as evidence an apartment fire that made national news when a renter overheated her unit and it caught fire as she tried to chase out the bugs.

Kovach aims to point out the consequences to many of the high expense of installing a sprinkler system in new manufactured homes, which is already available as an option for MH or conventional home buyers. Otherwise qualified families would be disqualified from obtaining a loan for a home, and many homeowners agree with that viewpoint. In fact, a recent survey conducted by the NAHB suggests that, when given the choice between a “free” fire sprinkler system and another option, the majority of homeowners chose a different option.

“Fire safety and prevention is, of course, a top priority, but I feel that the decision of installing a fire sprinkler system should remain up to the individual homeowner, and not be mandated by the government.” – L. A. ‘Tony’ Kovach, industry consultant, and Publisher for MHLivingNews.com and MHProNews.com

The full debate by the two leaders is linked below.   http://www.MHProNews.com/blogs/industryvoices/the-fire-sprinklers-and-manufactured-housing-debate-two-views/

Photo Caption/Credits

Fires in housing of all prices and types often increase during the winter months. Conventional house ablaze, left photo credit, Genius-com. Right: A single section manufactured home with a LR fireplace.  Such homes routinely have both a mesh screen and a tempered glass door, as fire prevention safeguards.  Manufactured home fireplaces with tempered glass doors are commonly equipped with blower motors, to push the heat into a room, while preventing warmth from leaving once the hearth’s fire naturally goes out. A 3 bedroom, 2 bath 1200 square foot home like this would start in the upper 40s in many markets.  Photo credit, Sunshine Homes, Red Bay, AL.

About MHProNews.com and MHLivingNews.com

Since 2009, MHProNews.com and MHLivingNews.com have become the 2 largest trade journals serving the manufactured home industry.

ManufacturedHomeLivingNews.com (aka MHLivingNews.com) is the leading consumer trade publication showcasing quality affordable lifestyles, interviews, videos and reports about today’s manufactured and modular homes.

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Media Contact:
L. A. “Tony” Kovach
Publisher – MHLivingNews.com
Phone: 863-213-4090
Email: [email protected]