Mansion destroyed by fire built before sprinklers required

An old file in county records describes work planned for Don and Sandy Pyle's custom-built castle-like home.

Number of elevators: 1.

Fireplace: Yes.

Smoke detectors: Yes.

Heating fuel: Gas (liquid propane).

Automated suppression system: No.

Back when the project was under review, smoke detectors were a must, but a sprinkler system was a choice. A developer or homeowner could opt in or out with a check mark on a line.

But had the Pyles' home been built four years later, in 2009, Anne Arundel County law would have required sprinklers.

State Deputy Fire Marshal Bruce Bouch said an investment in sprinklers, a water tank and a pump could have made a difference — perhaps even saved lives.

"It definitely would have had a profound effect on that fire," he said.

Six people, including four young children, are believed to have died in the four-alarm fire that destroyed the 16,000-square-foot home near Annapolis Monday. As of Saturday, investigators had recovered five bodies and were continuing to probe the wreckage.

Authorities say the cause of the fire is still unknown. When firefighters arrived at the scene that early morning, they faced a critical problem: water.

Gallons of water had to be hauled in by tanker truck or pumped up from the South River. No fire hydrant was within reach; the owners had a well. Officials said it took about 3½ hours to get the blaze under control.

Baltimore city and 14 of Maryland's 23 counties, including Anne Arundel, require newly constructed homes to have sprinklers, according to the state fire marshal's office.

But because of a new statewide law prohibiting local jurisdictions from weakening the state building code, every county will be required to enforce installation of sprinklers in new homes June 30.

California is the only other state to require home sprinklers in new construction, according to the National Fire Protection Association, which tracks sprinkler legislation.

For supporters, it's a landmark victory for fire safety.

For opponents, many of them developers, it means added costs for a safety measure that hasn't been proven to save more lives than smoke detectors.

County history

To her, it wasn't politics. It was personal.

Anne Arundel County Council Chairwpman Cathy Vitale, R-Severna Park, was determined to get her sprinkler bill introduced in 2008. It had been in the making for four or five years, she said.

Volunteer firefighters had been lobbying to incorporate sprinklers into the building code. Prince George's County, bordering Anne Arundel, had made sprinklers mandatory for every new home in 1992.

But there was resistance from the home building industry, which countered that the systems were fallible, too expensive and ought to be a homeowner's choice.

Vitale, who was later a state delegate and is now resigning to become a Circuit Court judge, said she'll never forget the night that motivated her.

Her husband, a career firefighter, had been working a fatal fire in Pasadena around Christmas. One or more children had been in the house. Near a bedroom, they found a smoke detector turned upside-down, with the batteries removed.

"My husband came home and he went upstairs," Vitale said. "He grabbed our son out of his bed and hugged him so hard that our son was like, 'Daddy, let go of me.'"

In 2007, Vitale drafted a bill that never reached the council dais. There were holdups with the administration because of technical details. One year later, the bill came to fruition.

At a hearing in November 2008, a lobbyist for the county chapter of Home Builders Association of Maryland was one of the opponents.

In her written testimony, she said the median installation cost for fire sprinklers was $5,574.

"More people, including firefighters, are almost sure to die if fire sprinklers are mandatory," the testimony said.

"The reason is that economic data illustrates that more than a million households will be stuck where they are … often in old, unsafe housing because it is the only housing that they will be able to afford."

Instead, she advocated stronger local initiatives for smoke detectors, which were already legally required.

The written version of the testimony was titled "Smoke detectors won't avert tragedies." The words "smoke detectors" had been stricken out with a pen and "sprinklers" handwritten above it, county records show.

On the night the bill came to a vote in January 2009, 25 career and volunteer firefighters showed up to support the bill.

The measure passed, 6-1, making the county the ninth in Maryland to enforce such a requirement at the time. Then-Councilman Ed Middlebrooks cast the only "no" vote.

Former County Executive John R. Leopold championed the bill. About a decade earlier, as a state delegate, he had been involved in legislation that set up a property tax credit for residents who installed sprinkler systems.

Leopold hopes today's lawmakers will improve current policies, perhaps with state and county partnerships to help fund sprinklers in homes.

When he read about the fire at the Pyles' home, the year of its construction struck him.

"I thought, 'Oh geez,'" he said in an interview. "That's unfortunate we weren't able to get that bill passed earlier."

Success rate

Bob Kaufman, a lobbyist for the Maryland Building Industry Association, said many builder groups nationally oppose sprinkler systems, but that his group has been more "neutral."

The MBIA resulted from a merger a few years ago of the Home Builders Association of Maryland and the Maryland-National Capital Building Industry Association.

"It's a battle we really can't win," he said. "The data suggest that sprinklers are not what really matter — it's smoke alarms that save lives."

But some developers fought against smoke detector requirements, Kaufman said, and that has damaged their credibility on other issues.

The opposition to smoke detector mandates, he said, came from "knee-jerk conservative home builders who didn't want government to tell them what to do. I can assure you that would not be our position in the future, whatever they did back then."

According to the most recent state fire marshal report, in 2013 in Maryland 13 people died in 13 fires in houses in which the smoke alarms were known to function properly.Fire safety proponents often say Prince George's County offers the strongest evidence for residential sprinkler systems.

From 1992 to 2007, according to a report, there were 101 fire deaths in houses and townhomes not protected by sprinklers. In that period, no deaths occurred in the 245 houses where sprinklers were activated during fires.

There were 446 people inside the sprinklered houses when the fires started.

Raymond Lonabaugh, Mid-Atlantic manager of the National Fire Sprinkler Association, said when he drives throughout the region to fire scenes, often in rural areas, he wonders how things might have been different if homeowners had sprinklers.

In as few as four minutes, a fire can reach flashover — the moment at which all objects in a room are so hot they ignite.

Some of the state's most rural counties don't require sprinklers in new homes. Garrett, Allegany, Cecil, Kent, Caroline, Dorchester, Wicomico, Somerset and Worcester counties will come into compliance with the state law June 30, state fire marshal officials said.

Homes in such counties tend to be spread out far from fire stations. Many homes are on wells and are not connected to city or county water lines.

Lonabaugh, who has worked in fire service for 30 years, believes they're the most vulnerable to house fires.

"As I'm driving out, I say to myself, 'Without a sprinkler, these houses — there's nothing the fire department can do when they get to the scene,'" he said. "You want my opinion? Those people should have it even more than the people on city water."

Equipment and installation

Larry Cate, a Severna Park-based sprinkler installation contractor, says he is often trying to dispel myths about sprinklers.

He said his own home proves such systems can work at houses on well water.

Cate, vice president of Absolute Fire Protection Inc., often has to point out where the sprinklers are in his ceilings. He uses "concealed" sprinklers covered by white discs, flush to the ceiling, that pop off when the temperature reaches 155 degrees. These sprinkler heads cost $5 more each, Cate said.

Downstairs, in the basement, 500 gallons of water — about 200 gallons more than the typical capacity at a home on well water — sits in the belly of a giant tank. A pump is installed beside the tank.

"Every house I've ever owned has sprinklers in it," Cate said. "When you learn and you're really educated, you would have them, too."

Industry experts estimate the cost of a system for a new home at $1.35 to $2 per square foot. For houses that aren't connected to public water, adding a tank and pump or a constant pressure well pump could tack on an extra $2,000.

Lonabaugh said no one is ever likely to push for mandatory retrofitting of existing homes, unless they are also undergoing significant renovations. Costs are exponentially higher when contractors must knock down drywall to find places to tuck away pipes.

But in places like Annapolis, owners of historic homes are encouraged to add sprinklers. The local code requires homeowners in the Historic District to add sprinklers if their renovations cost more than a certain portion of the home's value.

Battalion Chief Nathan Powell, chief fire marshal of Annapolis, said city firefighters recently responded to a fire completely extinguished by house sprinklers by the time they arrived.

"What residential sprinklers are designed to do is prevent a fire from growing to allow occupants to escape," Powell said. "There's a tremendous difference between a home that is sprinklered versus a home that is not sprinklered."

But when it's optional, Kaufman said, many fire chiefs, fire marshals or firefighters don't invest in sprinklers in their own homes. If sprinkler advocates don't require them installed in every house — old or new — their arguments are weaker, he said.

"We're being very hypothetical here," Kaufman said. "In a few days, we might find out why it wouldn't have mattered."

Fire safety event

The City of Annapolis will hold a brown bag lunch session on fire safety at noon Feb. 11 in City Hall, 160 Duke of Gloucester St.

Annapolis Fire Department and city fire marshal officials will offer information on small steps residents can take to improve fire safety in homes.

Saturday report

Search crews at the house at 936 Childs Point Road did not find any additional remains Saturday, the Anne Arundel County Fire Department reported.

Remains of five of the six people who have been missing since the Monday fire have been recovered.