Contents

• Sprinklers are ugly
• My smoke detector provides enough protection
• Water damage is worse than fire damage
• My home's not big enough to need fire sprinklers
• Sprinklers will go off if there is smoke in the house
• Sprinklers could malfunction and leak
• Sprinklers all go off at once

Myth: Sprinklers are ugly.

Fact: Fire damage is ugly. X-FIRE offers the option of inconspicuous covers (smaller than smoke detectors) that can be color customized at the factory to suit your room or décor.

Myth: My smoke detector provides enough protection.

Fact: Of the hardware store variety smoke detectors, the NFPA has indicated only 55% work properly. Annually, residential fires cause 5.64 billion in property damage and injure 15,000 people in America, representing 85% of all injuries from fire. Every 90 seconds, there is a home fire. Smoke detectors help alert that there is a fire, but cannot extinguish it.

Myth: Water damage is worse than fire damage.

Fact: Water damage costs much less. Sprinkler systems use about 230 gallons of water (without the water shutoff feature) to extinguish fire, compared to fire engines using about 2,900 gallons of water. A ten year study indicated only an average of $1,720 in damage occurs on fires in sprinkled homes, vs. $11,600 from fires that occur in homes without sprinklers, not including homes totally lost to fire.<

Myth: My home's not big enough to need fire sprinklers.

Fact: Fire is indiscriminate and will consume any structure, regardless of size or value. X-FIRE has installed and/or designed home fire sprinkler systems for homes from less than a 1,000 square feet to homes in excess of 10,000 square feet.

Myth: Sprinklers will go off if there is smoke in the house.

Fact: Smoke will not activate a fire sprinkler system. Sprinkler heads are HEAT activated.

Myth: Sprinklers could malfunction and leak.

Fact: The chances of a properly installed sprinkler system leaking because of a manufacturing defect is about 1 in 16 million. By comparison, the chances of being struck by lightning are about 1 in 600,000, or about 26 times more likely.

Myth: Sprinklers all go off at once

Fact: Only the fire sprinkler head closest to the fire is activated. In 90% of cases, only one sprinkler head is needed to control and extinguish the fire.