Lake Travis Fire Rescue – Official Press Release
- Incident Type: Structure Fire
- Location: Long Horn Landing, Austin, Texas 78734
- Date of Initial Alarm: 7/24/2015
- Time of Initial Alarm: 14:33 or (2:33 PM)
- Status of Incident at Time of Press Release: Fire Out, Investigation
- Agencies Involved: Lake Travis Fire Rescue (Primary), Austin Fire Department, Travis County Sheriff’s Office, Travis County Fire Marshal’s Office, Austin/Travis EMS
- Location of Press Briefing: Not Assigned
- Time of Press Briefing(s): Not Scheduled
- Further Press Releases Planned: Not Planned
Lake Travis Fire & Rescue Incident Summary:
A passerby called 911 to report a house on fire in the 15600 Blk. of Cedar LedgeBlk. in the Hudson Bend area. Fire crews quickly arrived on-scene to find a two story unsprinklered residential home with fire showing from the rear of the structure. Fire crews were able to extinguish the fire and prevent further damage to the other portions of the home. No one was home at the time of the fire. There were no injuries reported and damage estimates are pending. Travis County Fire Marshal’s Office is investigating the cause of the fire.
Lake Travis Fire Rescue is a supporter of residential fire sprinkler systems, also known as “13D and 13R” systems. If you are planning to build a new home or remodel your current home and would like to learn more about residential fire sprinkler systems, please contact the Lake Travis Fire Rescue Fire Prevention Division today at 512-266-2533 or visit us on the web at www.ltfr.org
WHY ARE SPRINKLER SYSTEMS SO IMPORTANT?
For more than 100 years, fire sprinklers have been one of the most important elements of home fire safety. This is just one incident that displays why they can be so important to your home and family’s safety. As of 2009, Texas (TX) law requires that all new homes have fire sprinkler systems installed. While existing homes are not required to have fire sprinklers installed, it is highly recommended that you install a fire sprinkler system, since have been proven to dramatically increase your life expectancy in the event of a fire.
SAVING LIVES
According to the NFPA, having a residential fire sprinkler system installed in your home can increase your survival expectancy during a fire by 80%. Residential fire sprinklers are effective because they activate faster than any other response mechanism and help to control the fire immediately at the point of origin.
The most lethal aspect of a fire is neither the heat nor the flames produced. Instead, toxic fumes and smoke are by far the most dangerous effects of fire. Worse yet, smoke produced by a fire can quickly and easily spread to all rooms in your property, impeding your vision and filling your home with poison. Installing a residential fire sprinkler system can dramatically reduce smoke production and can keep toxic fumes at survivable levels.
Untamed fires can spread to uncontrollable levels in seconds, and blinding smoke can reduce visibility and make it difficult to breathe in an already extremely stressful situation. Fire sprinklers give the people in your home approximately 10 minutes of cool, clean air to safely escape from your home.
PROTECTING PROPERTY
Even if you managed to get your entire family out of a fire in an unsprinklered home, there would be nothing you could do to stop the fire from consuming your home. A residential fire sprinkler system can change that. Having a home fire sprinkler system installed in your home can help curb the flames and keep the damage to your home at a minimum.
One concern many people have when they consider installing a residential fire sprinkler system in their homes is the belief that fire sprinklers would soak their home and all of their belongings when they went off, doing as much (or more) damage as a small fire. This is not the case. In fact, fire sprinklers use the minimum amount of water necessary to control the fire, usually spraying 8-24 gallons of water per minute to control home fires (a small amount compared to the 50 – 125 gallons per minute that the fire department’s hose supplies!).
In addition, there is very little risk of fire sprinkler systems leaking. Most residential fire sprinkler leaks that do occur only occur as a result of pipes freezing and bursting, an effect rarely seen in Austin or Texas. If you are still worried about your residential fire sprinkler pipes leaking, there is also the dry pipe fire sprinkler option which does not keep water in pipes.
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