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It has been no secret that the country’s fire chiefs have been in support of sprinklers in new

residential construction for many years. Jurisdictions where this is the norm, have limited deaths in these homes.

As such, in our view, there is no question that the presence of residential sprinklers saves lives and

that if it were free, it would be done already. There is also no question that there is a cost and a risk

calculation on the affordability and desirability of sprinklers for home buyers, builders, industry,

planners and others. For many years, we’ve sat at tables where Fire Chiefs call for sprinklers and others

respond the likelihood of need doesn’t warrant the cost.

Our goal in this paper, is to change the conversation entirely. The report rests on the assumption that if

costs, myths and misunderstandings can be resolved, we can come closer to a society in which all new

residential construction is sprinklered and eliminate fire related deaths in them.

Many people contributed to this report. We had tremendous responses to the surveys and requests

for interviews from within CAFC and from industry and other stakeholders. The CAFC Building Codes

Committee led the project. Co-Chairs Ret. Deputy Chief Sean Tracey and Rt. Lt. Col Ga tan Morinville

penned the report with our Executive Director Tina Saryeddine. CAFC’s National Advisory Council

members ensured their provincial, territorial and national affiliate perspectives were represented.

CASA generously funded the work; Denise Ferraccioli of Clever Girl Creative did formatting, and

Salvatore Strippoli did the translation.

We’ll be interested in your reactions to this report. We hope it will start the conversation and that

external partners will follow up with us to discuss some of the incentives further. You can do so by

reaching out to our Executive Director, Dr. Tina Saryeddine, at  tsaryeddine@cafc.ca.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Download the full report here.