Valparaiso, IN – The Valparaiso Fire Department will host an open house in a home protected with fire sprinklers on April 26 from 3:00 to 7:00 P.M. at 504 Grandview Avenue in Valparaiso. The purpose is to introduce the community to the benefits of living in a home with installed fire sprinklers. Led by Valparaiso Division Chief of Community Risk Reduction and Fire Marshal Tim Stites, the event will include a tour of the home, a presentation on how home fire sprinklers work and answers to other common questions, such as installation cost and home property insurance discounts.
Chief Stites will be joined by the homeowner, Celina Weatherwax, president of the Multi-Agency Academic Cooperative (MAAC) Foundation, Valparaiso Fire Chief Chad Ditz and Ron Ritchey with the National Fire Sprinkler Association. Other participants include the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition, which will share its new virtual reality (VR) home fire and sprinkler video experience, and installing contractor Valley Fire Protection Systems.
Chief Stites believes every home should be protected with fire sprinklers for maximum safety. “It is important because you are more likely to die in a home fire today than you were 40 years ago due to the combustibility of the furnishings and the features in our home,” he said. “Fires burn hotter and faster now. Fire sprinklers allow more time to get out of your home and more time for the fire department to arrive and fully extinguish the fire.”
We’ve partnered with the Home Fire Sprinkler Coalition to share their virtual reality resources,” Ritchey notes. “Wearing VR headsets, members of the public will be able to experience a home fire as if they were inside a burning home. This virtual experience helps people understand the amount of toxic, black smoke produced by a fire and just how fast fires spread in modern homes. They can see for themselves the devastation that occurs when there are no fire sprinklers installed. They’ll also see how much less damage there is in a home where a fire sprinkler activates to control or extinguish a fire. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, and a virtual reality video even more.”
Weatherwax became interested in protecting her family home with fire sprinklers after seeing a Valparaiso Fire Department fire sprinkler demonstration on the MAAC Foundation campus last August. “It was a reality check for me,” she recalls. “It made me start thinking as I proceeded with building my new home what I could do to implement this. All these years I’ve read and heard about the significance of fire sprinklers,, but when I saw that demonstration live in action, I thought this installation was important for me to do.” Weatherwax hopes opening her home for others to see will help them see the importance of fire sprinklers as well.