- Aug 30, 2022
- Kelli Esposito, Account Manager for Auto-Out® cooktop fire protection
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Supply chain disruptions, inflation, and labor shortages emphasize the need for apartment fire prevention
In thousands of cities across the country, apartment residents make up half the population. In an apartment community, the actions of a single tenant can potentially affect dozens of families. Unattended cooking fires are the number one cause of residential structure fires. It could be something as simple as a tenant stepping away to take a phone call while cooking, and just a few short minutes later a fire starts to engulf their kitchen.
According to a National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) study, a fire starts in a multifamily property every six minutes in the United States. While standard insurance policies protect the owner from losses due to fires, there’s still the cost of the deductible and other unforeseen costs that inevitably arise.
The process of rebuilding after a kitchen fire can be painstakingly slow and very expensive. All these issues are exacerbated in the current climate of supply chain issues, inflation, labor shortages, etc. Based on information from the 2022 Construction Industry Economic Outlook & Analysis, the construction cost index’s annual escalation rate rose by 8.4% in 2022.
Furthermore, once the unit has been rebuilt, property owners can expect an increase in their insurance premiums. Insurance is already incredibly hard to acquire for multifamily properties, not to mention expensive. Incidents like the one portrayed above can only make it more expensive and difficult to maintain and renew insurance. And many insurance companies are wary of the residential arena and often seek to increase rates dramatically.
Fortunately, there are automatic, stovetop fire suppression products that can help prevent these incidents from becoming a worst-case scenario for residential property management companies and building owners. These devices are triggered upon flame activation to help extinguish cooking fires before they spread past the stovetop. Some insurance companies even offer discounts for installing these devices.
Easily installed in the vent hood above the range, stovetop fire suppression devices are activated by flames on the stovetop reaching the device. This allows the device to activate, releasing fire-suppressant powder onto the flames. There have been countless cases whereby these devices prevented a fire from spreading.
Automatic, stovetop fire suppressors have proven performance and are affordable (less than $50 per housing unit). Adding them to your portfolio offers a simple solution to a potentially devastating event, while offering the added benefit of controlling insurance and rebuilding costs.