Lawmakers balk at requiring sprinkler systems

Fire safety experts agree: Fire-suppressing sprinkler systems in apartments save lives and protect property.

So why do so many South Carolina apartment buildings not have sprinkler systems?

The quick answer: money.

Installing sprinkler systems in older apartment buildings could cost a bundle, observers say.

South Carolina’s governor and Republican-led Legislature are reluctant to place any heavy burdens on business — even if more lives could be saved, advocates for low-income residents say.

“It’s hard to get the state to push any kind of business to do anything,” said Sue Berkowitz, director of the South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center.

The issue pits often low-income apartment tenants against corporate or well-to-do individual apartment owners, Berkowitz said. State lawmakers are more likely to take the side of business over apartment renters, she said.

State Rep. Bill Chumley, R-Spartanburg, said he's unsure how he stands on the issue but that he is concerned about increasing the regulatory burden on business.

“It sounds like a good idea but sometimes the government tries to do everything,” Chumley said.

“Saving lives is always a good thing, I guess, unless it’s a burden on people having to deal with so many regulations,” he added.

A spokesman for Gov. Henry McMaster, when asked about the issue, focused on the cost of sprinklers.

“Governor McMaster does not support any undue, costly government mandates that hurt South Carolina business owners,” said spokesman Brian Symmes, in an email.

In North Carolina, however, sprinklers are required in "all buildings used for sleeping purposes" except one- and two-family dwellings, unless units that were built before the code went into effect are separated by a two-hour firewall, according to the North Carolina Fire Code.

“Everything goes back to cost,” said Greenville County Councilman Willis Meadows. “Everything comes down to money. But what price do you put on human life? Obviously it would be best if every apartment is sprinkled.”

An official with the state apartment association said the group does not encourage apartment owners to retrofit older buildings with sprinkler systems, but he declined to answer any other questions.

Devastating fire

Fire safety experts are emphatic that sprinkler systems in apartment buildings can protect life and property.

“Without a doubt, fire sprinklers save lives and in most cases property as well,” said state Fire Marshal Jonathan Jones.

Three weeks ago, a fire swept through a standalone section of the Century Oaks apartments, destroying eight units in a flash.

No one was injured but eight families lost almost all of their possessions.

The fire was quick and devastating because the apartment lacked a sprinkler system and firewalls, investigators said.

“Thank God nobody was injured,” said Jason Nurmi, fire marshal with the Parker Fire District.

The apartment complex, built in 1972, was not required by state law to have a sprinkler system. Apartments built after 2005 in South Carolina are required to have sprinkler systems, but those constructed before 2005 are exempt from that building code, Jones said.

“If that building were built today, the code would require that it would have to be sprinkled,” Jones said. “Each dwelling would have to be separated by one-hour-rated fire partitions, and for every 3,000 feet of attic space, there would have to be draft stopping.”

It's not the first time fire has struck the Century Oaks complex. Two apartments were heavily damaged in 2002 when a fire that apparently started in the attic of a vacant apartment, burning off two-thirds of the roof, The Greenville News reported at the time.

Jones said there’s no question that safety could be improved if apartment buildings constructed before 2005 were retrofitted with sprinkler systems.

“Would the addition of a fire sprinkler system in older buildings add to the safety of the occupants? Absolutely it would,” Jones said.

Greenville Fire Marshal Steve Whitman agrees with Jones on the effectiveness of sprinklers.

“It protects the property and can save lives, too, because it prevents the fire from spreading,” Whitman said. “It should be able to contain the fire with two or three heads going off.”

But the only way to get apartment owners to install sprinkler systems is for the state to mandate it, Berkowitz said.

Johnson said the ball is in the Legislature’s court.

“I am very much for safety, but I am not for ungrandfathering a lot of these things the regulatory folks try to do,” said state Rep. Mike Burns, R-Greenville. “All it’s going to do is put small business folks out of business. I think we’re overreaching when we do some of that.”

Burns said government cannot always protect people from life’s hazards.

“Safety comes first but I wouldn’t require that we bubble wrap every car until it was 10 feet wide, so no one could get hurt in a bump up. You can’t live that way,” Burns said.

State Rep. Phyllis Henderson, R-Greenville, said if the state were to require apartment owners to install sprinkler systems, the owners would pass on their costs to tenants by raising rent.

“I’d have to look at it from the standpoint of the economic,” Henderson said. “If we’re requiring building owners to go back and retrofit, which is definitely a safety issue, what are they doing with the cost of that? They’re passing it along in terms of higher rent.”

No count taken

Neither the state nor Greenville County has an accurate count on how many apartment buildings lack sprinkler systems, firewalls and other fire safety technology.

That fact surprised Meadows, whose County Council district encompasses the Century Oaks apartments.

“I would have thought there would be some count of how many apartment buildings have or didn’t have sprinklers,” Meadows said.

Meadows said sprinkler systems would likely protect the lives of tenants, though he was reluctant to say that lawmakers should require that older apartment buildings be retrofitted with automatic sprinklers.

“If you have a sprinkler system, it would slow down the fire or put it out. I don’t know if you have to be too smart to know that,” Meadows said.

Jones said lawmakers several years ago provided tax incentives to encourage owners of commercial properties to retrofit buildings with sprinklers. That tax incentive has been unsuccessful, Jones said, because municipalities and counties faced losing considerable tax revenues.

Berkowitiz urged lawmakers to consider other incentives to encourage apartment owners to install sprinkler systems, firewalls and other fire safety technologies.

“There are things they can look at if they care about the health and well-being of people,” she said.

Paul Hyde covers education and everything else under the South Carolina sun. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter: @PaulHyde7.