KSLA News 12 Shreveport, Louisiana |Fire fighters want sprinkler ordinance

Fire fighters want sprinkler ordinance

By Ben Wolf - email | bio

SHREVEPORT, LA (KSLA) - Fire fighters say there is no state or city law forcing older model apartments to have sprinklers installed in case of a fire.

Fire chief Brian Crawford wants an ordinance mandating all apartments to have those sprinkler systems.

"This material stuff, it can be replaced, but my life -- it couldn't have been replaced and I thank God for my neighbor knocking at my door," said fire victim Wenona Walters.

Eight families will sleep in foreign beds after the latest Shreveport apartment fire destroyed their homes.

Fire fighters say a sprinkler system could have minimized the damage in the older building.

"Is a life not worth more than a few thousand dollars?  I would think that it is," said assistant fire chief Fred Sanders.

The latest fire is at the end of a long list of apartment blazes including fires in January, May, July, and November of 2008. 

Hundreds of thousands of dollars in property damage and in some cases lives were lost.

Shreveport fire fighters want an ordinance putting sprinkler systems in every apartment complex in the city.

"I believe that Chief Crawford is going to do that as soon as possible, I can't give you a date on that because that's his call as the fire chief," said Sanders.

Fire fighters say if this proposed ordinance gets passed, by the time they load up their gear and get the fire truck to the scene of the fire, they'll be dealing with less property damage and less loss of life.

The criticism is the cost of putting the sprinklers in -- which could drive up rent for residents.

But fire fighters hope images of destroyed property and pictures of those lost in the flames will trump the dollars and cents.

"Her fire [alarm] didn't go off, the smoke woke her up, she woke up coughing, so I think the sprinkler system would be great," said Walters.