For more than 30 years, the Village of Wheeling has been a leader in Illinois and nationally with their residential fire sprinkler requirements. Many of the residents living in the Whippletree Village Manufactured Home Community are protected with fire sprinklers because of this history. Currently, 35 manufactured homes are protected with fire sprinklers with another 37 going in. Approximately 75 single family homes have sprinkler coverage as well as numerous townhomes in Wheeling.
Wheeling first included fire sprinkler requirements in the Village’s Building and Fire Prevention code during the 1990s. It was written as part of the Municipal Code with a section that said all structures were required to have automatic fire sprinklers, including manufactured housing.
Ten years ago, the Village further solidified its fire sprinkler codes by upgrading to the 2012 edition of the International Residential Code (IRC) with local amendments that required fire sprinklers in all new buildings regardless of square footage or occupancy classification.
According to Fire Prevention Manager Bob Niemiec, Wheeling’s most recent code adoption cycle upgraded the village to the 2018 edition of the IRC.
“The current adopted Municipal Code contains provisions modifying portions of NFPA 13D removing exceptions or adding provisions, such as sprinkler coverage in garages, bathrooms and other items that met the Department’s intent of providing sprinkler protection throughout all structures,” Niemiec said.
“Also included over the years were changes to the codes to include enhancements to sprinkler protection like tying the sprinkler water flow to the occupancy’s smoke alarm system. So like most codes, it’s growing and adapting.”
Early on, there were some challenges in getting this code passed; however, former Fire Chief Keith MacIsaac was a strong proponent of fire sprinklers and put a lot of local ordinance code language into effect.
Deputy Fire Chief Steve Mella spoke on how much damage could be done, especially to manufactured homes without fire sprinklers.
“When we had fires in a mobile home park, the homes are typically very, very close to each other. The fire spread was rapid, and it was a challenge to keep the fire contained to one of the manufactured homes,” Mella said. “Manufactured homes are lightweight construction, so they do burn quickly. All homes with modern-day furnishings are mostly plastic, so homes, whether they are multifamily, single-family, or manufactured homes, the furnishings burn much, much quicker than legacy construction and legacy furnishings ever did. So anything we can do to save lives and minimize property damage, we’re most certainly going to advocate for.”
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