Sprinkler Systems, Not Just For Hotels: Your Survival System At Home

RENO, NV - Smoke alarms can get you and your family out of a burning building in time, but a sprinkler system can stop the fire at its origin.

That's why fire officials and members of the media gathered on a parking lot near the convention center this morning.

To demonstrate the difference a sprinkler system can make they constructed two identical rooms. That one has no sprinkler system. The other does.

First, a fire is started in a trash can in the non-sprinklered room.

The fire builds quickly. In less than two minutes the smoke alarm has been triggered.

If this were your home, you'd be scrambling to get everyone out safely, then calling the fire department.

But a couple of minutes later, very likely before they could arrive things can get much more serious.

"It can get to flash over phase, which means everything in that room ignites, in 4 to 5 minutes," says Sparks Fire Marshal Bob King.

And in the demonstration that's exactly what happens. The room literally explodes in flame and black smoke.

See more here:
Sprinkler Systems, Not Just For Hotels: Your Survival System At Home