To help mark National Fire Prevention Week, the Excelsior, Minn., Fire District hosted a dramatic, side-by-side demonstration of two room fires – one equipped with fire sprinklers and the other without – as part of its Fire Prevention Open House and Safety Fair on Thursday evening, Oct. 7, 2010. More than 1,200 local residents attended the event.

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"There's nothing like the heat and smoke of a real fire to help people understand how quickly a blaze can become fatal in under three minutes," says Excelsior Fire District Fire Inspector Kellie Murphy-Ringate of the event. “By providing this unique live fire comparison, our residents gained an appreciation for the aggressive nature of home fires and realized what an incredible advantage it is to have a home fire sprinkler system.”

The Open House event culminated with firefighters simultaneously lighting fires in two similarly sized and furnished rooms.

In the first demonstration room, the fire spread rapidly, causing smoke and heat damage and possibly threatening the lives of the homeowners. The firefighters who were present extinguished the blaze after the flashover.
In the second demonstration room, the heat of the fire activated the overhead sprinkler once the room temperature reached 155˚F, extinguishing the blaze in approximately 45 seconds. By activating while a fire is still small, a sprinkler controls the blaze, slowing the spread of poisonous smoke and deadly heat.

“Fire sprinklers save property while giving homeowners and their families precious time to escape,” explains Jayson Drake, senior product manager, Plumbing and Fire Safety, for Uponor North America, a manufacturer of fire safety sprinkler systems and a sponsor of the Excelsior Safety Open House.

In response to growing concerns about fatalities caused by household fires and irrefutable fire-loss economic data, the nation’s building codes are changing to incorporate this life-saving technology. Minnesota is one of many states now studying whether to adopt the International Code Council mandate that requires sprinklers in all new one- and two-family dwellings.

For more information about the event, contact: Kellie Murphy-Ringate, Excelsior Fire District; telephone: 952.960.1692; e-mail: KMurphyRingate@excelsiorfire.org

Uponor, Inc. is a leading supplier of plumbing, fire safety and radiant heating and cooling systems for the residential and commercial building markets in the United States. Uponor, Inc. employs 380 people at its North American headquarters in Apple Valley, Minn. For more information, visit www.uponor-usa.com or call (800) 321-4739.

For more information about Uponor, visit the Uponor media room at uponor.oreilly-depalma.com/

For editorial assistance, contact John O’Reilly c/o O'Reilly/DePalma at (815) 469-9100; e-mail: john.oreilly@oreilly-depalma.com

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Uponor, Wirsbo and AquaSAFE™ are trademarks or registered trademarks of Uponor Corporation and Uponor, Inc.

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Sprinklered Room File Name: UponorSprinkler.tif Image Size: 5" wide x 6.7" high x 300ppi (1500 x 2000 pixels); CMYK.

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