Shostack + Friends Blog

 

Fire and building codes

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What's more primordial than fire? It's easy to think that fire is a static threat, and defenses against it can be static. So it was surprising to see that changes in home design and contents are leading to fires spread much faster, and that the Canadian Commission on Building and Fire Codes is considering mandates for home sprinklers.

The CBC's "Rise in fast-burning house fires heats up calls for sprinklers in homes" has a good discussion of the changing threat, the costs of mitigation, and the tradeoffs entailed.