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I have a problem with the March 31 Bangor Daily News headline “This safety feature is driving up Maine home costs.” I think the true headline should be: “For as little as 4 percent your family home could be more fire safe than your neighbors.”
The proposed legislative bills that the article is referring to would limit a town’s ability to make their taxpayers and their families safer, save the taxpayers money on fire protection, and potentially prevent a family from losing everything they own, even if they escape a fire safely.
Yes, most of the municipalities that have enacted fire sprinkler ordinances are in southern Maine. Many of them are also the towns that have tripled in population (and number of buildings) in recent years.
Would it be better to have tripled the number of fire stations, firefighters, and apparatus? Unfortunately, that would not protect the lives and property of the residents as much as a sprinkler ordinance. The ordinances are the result of knowledgeable municipal leaders making their taxpayers safer, and keeping the tax rate as low as possible.
That’s called local control. Not one of them is forcing you to build your new home in their town.
The article stated that “firefighters” are the “most vocal opponents of such a change.” Could that be because the people living in that house expect the fire department to rescue them, and especially their loved ones, from a fire (often caused by their own carelessness)?
Bad news: Many, many people die in fires before anyone calls 911 to report that fire. Could it be that firefighters have seen how low the chances are of pulling a living person out of a burning building, and really don’t enjoy recovering bodies? Who else are you going to call to do that? Maybe a building contractor?
Larry Willis
Brewer
