Carroll Fire Protection District Offers Grants To Homeowners 
to Install Home Fire Sprinklers

The Carroll Fire Protection District in Urbana, Illinois, has a program offering homeowners of new or existing one-and-two family homes a tax rebate grant to install home fire sprinklers. 

Once installed, the homeowner certifies to the Board of Trustees that they have installed and maintained a home fire sprinkler system that meets the NFPA 13D standard. The program provides a rebate to the homeowner who shows a copy of their paid current real estate tax bill. The Board Treasurer then calculates 25% of the fire district portion of the tax bill and the homeowner is issued a check for that amount.  The ordinance limits the aggregate amount to $2,000. 

According to Tom Harnsberger, retired fire chief of the Carroll Fire Protection District and a board trustee, the Board of Trustees believes that fire sprinklers are a win-win-win situation. “Residents living in a home with fire sprinklers are fire safe; firefighters will not be exposed to the need to enter fire-damaged buildings; and firefighters won’t be subjected to carrying body bags out of a burned structure,” he said. 

The Carroll Fire Protection District began the incentive program through authorization by the Illinois Public Act 095-0800, which allows the board of trustees of fire protection districts in Illinois to establish a grant award program to owners of one- and two-family homes. 

The program in the Carroll Fire Protection District has been in place since 2013.

Homeowners with fire sprinkler systems may also receive a discount from their homeowners insurance.