Many of you may have seen these sprinklers at Canadian Tire. They come in sets of 2 and have different mounting options. When hooked up to a water supply they sprinkle water around a building to create a curtain of moisture that reduces the risk of damage to homes in the face of a fire.
There are pro’s and con’s to anything you buy and these are no exception.
To find out more I called WASP and spoke to Gord Parker, a Structure Protection Specialist with BC Wildfire Service. He is a consultant with WASP.
Pro’s- Sprinklers can provide and additional source of protection.
Cons- Sprinklers may seem inexpensive but here may be hidden costs-see below
Considerations –
Do you have ready access to a water supply?
If you have a well, do you have a generator to supply water if the power goes out?
Is your well volume enough to supply the water needed to run the sprinklers?
If not what is the cost to set up a water storage system?
Can the public rely on Wildland Fire Management or the City Fire Department to turn on your sprinklers if you are evacuated days before the need for the sprinklers to be turned on?
We have had different answers from different individuals in these organizations we have spoken to. At this time we are unsure of what to expect.
TOP TIP from Gord
Don’t use sprinklers as a crutch to avoid completing the Fire Smart recommendations. Sprinklers are most effective when Fire Smarting has taken place in the home ignition zone.
Gord also provided more detailed information specifically on WASP Sprinklers. This information may further help with your decision.
Gord was most recently seen in a video taken in Yellowknife in June 2024. There he was testing an array of purpose -built structures to see how a wildfire impacted them. This was a real-life recreation of a video we have shown in public information meetings which was done in a facility in Colorado. You may remember it showed a structure built with various roofing & siding materials with various types of vegetation to show how they reacted when a simulated wildfire was started using brush and fans to blow the embers toward the building.
The testing Gord and crew did was in a forest with similar structures made of various materials, some with porches, or decks etc. to see how they performed in a purpose created wildfire. We look forward to seeing more results from this study in the coming months.
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