“Know Your Enemy” – Aren’t They the Same People Who Give Us the Wet Stuff to Put on the Red Stuff?
My old friend Billy Goldfeder, on firehouse.com and elsewhere, has been referring to the National Association of Home Builders as “anti-firefighter”. This, because of the group’s opposition to residential sprinklers.
In his pitch supporting sprinklers, Azarang Mirkhah recently wrote STATter 911 suggesting that the real enemy in the late Frank Brannigan’s “Know Your Enemy” column is not the building, but rather the people who allow the building to be constructed that way.
So, after looking at today’s article in Charleston’s The Post and Courier, do Billy and Oz and the rest of the fire service now declare some water companies as “anti-firefighter” and the “enemy”?
Reporter Tony Bartelme discovered that, “Charleston Water System, like many utilities nationwide, has expensive fees and requirements that penalize businesses for installing sprinklers”.
These fees can run more than 7 times the cost of the sprinkler system installation. The article questions the idea that sprinkler systems negatively “impact” a water system to justify these fees.
I have to admit that in all of the sprinkler stories I have done over the years, not one person in the fire service has told me about these impact fees. Now, I am going to have to check with the local water companies around Washington to see if they also have the fees.
If you are unaware of these fees, the article is a must read.
Update: It only took a day for political leaders to say something isn’ right here. Changes now promised on sprinkler impact fees in Charleston.
