Valparaiso Offers Fire Safety Grants to Protect Buildings in Historic District

The city of Valparaiso, Indiana, offers a grant program to help encourage the installation of fire safety systems in existing buildings in its historic downtown district. The Downtown Fire Safety Grant Program provides reimbursement grants to property owners and tenants to underwrite the costs of installing fire sprinkler systems and fire alarms in existing commercial and residential buildings.

Reimbursement grant maximum limits will be set forth in an agreement between the city and the property owner or tenant. Grant limits are as follows:

• New fire alarm system: 100% reimbursement up to $10,000.
• New fire suppression system (complete or partial): Reimbursement up to 85%, subject to the following:
  1. Total building square footage is less than 9,000: Reimbursement shall not exceed $30,000.
  2. Total building square footage is 9,001-15,000: Reimbursement shall not exceed $45,000.
  3. Total building square footage exceeds 15,000: Reimbursement shall not exceed $60,000.
• New fire protection system: 75% reimbursement up to $5,000.

Generally, the city may reimburse for eligible fire protection installation, extended water service, and approved devices and equipment. Full eligibility details are available in the grant program description.

Recognizing the threat fires pose to residents of the downtown area and the public as a whole, current Valparaiso Building Commissioner Vicki Thrasher and former Fire Chief David Nondorf developed the grant program alongside the former mayoral administration of Jon Costas. The grant program will help protect historic buildings, improve public safety, and prevent economic loss due to business interruption and closure.

Community Risk Reduction Division Chief and Fire Marshal of Valparaiso Fire Department Tim Stites says the program provides an important educational opportunity. “We want the public to know that fire sprinklers are crucial to fire safety and are not always true-to-life to those they see on television. I think it’s important for people to not listen to Hollywood too much on fire sprinklers,” he says. “Fire sprinklers save lives, they protect property, and reduce the risk for the community and firefighters as a whole.”

“Hollywood likes to portray fire sprinklers going off throughout the whole building; that’s not how they work. They are meant to go off one at a time and control a fire until firefighters can arrive on the scene and properly extinguish a fire to make sure everything’s safe. Fire and smoke cause more damage than the water from sprinklers.”

To be eligible for grant funding, applicants must own or rent an existing building located in the historic downtown district of Valparaiso and be up to date on their real estate taxes, with no building or property violations. Full information and applications are available on Valparaiso’s website.