When it comes to homes that are at risk of wildlife fires, and fires in nearby forests or woods, it can be crucial to eliminate the few wind-blown embers that strike the roofs of homes nearby. The problem is that most fire stations just don’t have the manpower to make sure each of the nearby homes is safe. Most of the time they are all spent on making sure no one is caught in the fire, and that the fire is being contained in the immediate area.
It is this exact reason that one firefighter, along with a manufacturing company, decided to produce a type of sprinkler system that can be used to spray down the roof when embers connect with the house. The system will prevent up-start fires from small embers ever even occurring and allow the firefighters to focus more on the fire that is causing the embers in the first place.
Unlike traditional sprinklers in a home that would have standby water waiting to be used for them at all times, these outdoor sprinklers were designed to be hooked up to hoses quickly to spread the water to the roof-tops. This gives the option of a firefighter coming by to spray down the roof of the houses or for the homeowners themselves to hook up the sprinkler to a backyard hose and handle it themselves if the firefighters are too busy.
The process and sprinkler design was created to make is so that homeowners could take advantage of being in control of the protection of their home from wildfires. The system has also already hit the market and seen a number of sales, so it seems like an effective and safe system without as much hassle between any of the parties. We will only know in time if the sprinkler design will solve wildfire ember problems, but for now, it’s better than the nothing we had before.
Source: http://www.firechief.com/2014/11/04/wildland-firefighter-invents-exterior-sprinkler-system/
