Columns

Nursing homes need comprehensive fire protection
NFPA Journal®, March/April 2004

by James M. Shannon, President

James M. Shannon
NFPA President

Anyone who has had to find a nursing home to take care of an aged parent knows how difficult that decision is. We want to make sure that we do everything we can to give our loved ones the best care and safest environment possible.

In the United States, we are lucky to have thousands of nursing home facilities that meet the highest standards of safety. Yet this last year has dramatically exposed an unnecessary danger in many nursing homes across the country, a danger that has led to a tragic loss of life.

On February 26, 2003, a fire in the Greenwood Health Center in Hartford, Connecticut, killed 15 residents—and this facility didn't stand alone in nursing home fatalities for the year. On September 25, there were 15 reported fatalities in a Nashville, Tennessee, nursing home, among them the mother of a local district fire chief. And this year, in Maryville, Tennessee, five residents died in a nursing home fire on January 20. The next day, 14 died in a nursing home fire in Glasgow, Scotland. These kinds of fires are unacceptable and show that we need to do more to protect our aged and infirm in these facilities.

Technological advances and public awareness campaigns have helped reduce nearly every category of fire. At a time when it may seem comfortable to sit back and review the nation's progress in reducing the number of fires and fire deaths, it serves us well to improve what is being done to protect every segment of the population from fire, especially our most vulnerable citizens. Many of us know what to do if fire strikes in our homes, but those who live in nursing homes must rely on help from caregivers at the time of fire. Will there be enough hands to lift and evacuate patients, close doors, and call for help, when the only fire protection systems in place are the "ordinary" ones, such as fire doors, smoke alarms, and portable fire extinguishers? The maximum fire protection that fire sprinklers add is a must in nursing homes.

This is what we know:

About 15 percent of all nursing homes in the United States are unsprinklered.
One-quarter of all nursing home fires occur in facilities that aren't equipped with sprinklers.
Sprinklers can control fires where they start, alleviating the burdens placed on staff to deal with the blaze while relocating or evacuating patients.
Sprinklers must be installed in all existing nursing homes because the common fire protection measures that work well in them now need to be strengthened.

It's likely that future codes will mandate sprinklers in all nursing homes. But code changes don't arrive overnight and traditionally come about only after major fires. After the 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist fire in New York City killed 146 garment workers, for example, NFPA established a committee to prepare standards covering the construction of stairways and fire escapes, fire drills, and exits for properties such as factories. The committee's recommendations eventually evolved into the current NFPA 101®, Life Safety Code®, adopted in three-quarters of all states today.

More recently, the nightclub tragedies in Chicago and Rhode Island drove changes to NFPA's key codes, lowering the threshold for the installation of fire sprinklers in certain facilities, restricting seating patterns, and adding requirements for on-site crowd managers and regular egress inspections.

The nursing home tragedies in Hartford, Nashville, Maryville, and Scotland will also bring about changes in fire and life safety codes, advancing safety in such occupancies.

Strong codes and strong enforcement save lives. While we wait for revisions to our existing codes or the adoption of new codes to address rapidly occurring events of our time, let us not lose track of what we can do now. We can insist on fire sprinklers in all nursing homes.

In this Section:

			Buzzwords Integrating fire alarm and fire protection systems

			Extra Five NFPA documents for Homeland Security

			Fire Watch Fire sprinkler extinguishes museum fire

			First Word Nursing homes need comprehensive fire protection

			Heads Up Fire sprinklers in the Matrix

			In Compliance Installing fire sprinklers in residential occupancies

			Inside the Beltway Mandating federal standards for upholstery

			Ins and Outs A better nfpa.org and online catalog

			Just Ask Professional certification highlights your skills

			Looking Back ...at NFPA 13, Installation of Sprinkler Systems

			On the Agenda June a big month for seminars

			Out Reach Vigilance needed when using candles

			Structural Ops Big-box stores rely on fire sprinkler protection