You are about to experience two fires, in two rooms that were set up with identical furnishings. The rooms are the same size; same windows and doors. The fires in both rooms were ignited within combustible materials commonly found in typical living rooms. One room is protected with a home fire sprinkler. The other is not. Look up, look down and behind you. Find the sprinkler in the ceiling. At 37 seconds, heat from the fire activates the sprinkler, controlling the fire and preventing it from becoming deadly. After the sprinkler activated, there is very little damage. The room is wet, but intact. If a family were sleeping, the sprinkler would have given them time to safely escape. The fire is confined to the room of origin and the family would likely be able to stay in the home or move back in a few days.

Without fire sprinklers, a house fire can become deadly in two minutes. The fire burns hot and fast. Look around the room and see the toxic smoke spread. There is nothing to stop the fire, so it builds strength, generating heat and smoke until flashover – the point at which everything in the room ignites. No one can survive flashover. Look around the room without the fire sprinkler. Everything is destroyed by the extreme heat and smoke. There would be only seconds for the family to escape a fire before flashover. The destruction in this room makes it clear: the home is uninhabitable and a complete loss.

This is a 360° video. Click and drag to look around the room.

Home fire sprinklers are the only technology that can stop a fire from becoming deadly.

To download the video to view with goggles and headsets, visit: https://homefiresprinkler.org/vr/