To demonstrate the life-saving value of automatic fire sprinklers in Australian homes, two full-scale living room replicas will be set on fire in Sydney later this month.

The burn will set fire to two identical living rooms built specially for the purpose, one with fire sprinklers installed and one without, both with a glass wall installed to allow observers to see the comparative speed of fire growth.

Fatal real-world cases and previous tests have shown homes with modern furnishings can become unsurvivable in less than three minutes after a fire starts. Automatic fire sprinklers can stop a fire from reaching the fatal ‘flashover’ point altogether.

The demonstration burn is being run by the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition in partnership with Fire and Rescue NSW (FRNSW), and will take place at FRNSW’s Londonderry test facility on Monday 29 April 2019 at 10.30am.

New rules require fire sprinklers

The demonstration burn will demonstrate how fire sprinklers can give Australian residents the time they need to escape an otherwise fatal fire in the home, and is being run ahead of new rules coming into force next month that require fire sprinklers in new medium-rise apartment buildings that weren’t previously protected.

The National Construction Code 2019 comes into effect on 1 May 2019, and requires all newly-built residential buildings over three storeys to have fire sprinklers installed.

New organisation to educate public & industry

The Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition (HFSC) is a collaboration between Fire Protection Association Australia (FPA Australia), the peak industry body for the fire protection industry, and the National Council for fire and emergency services, AFAC.

The HFSC was established in 2018 to inform the public and industry stakeholders about the life-saving value of home fire sprinkler protection by providing independent, non-commercial information and education material.