Lawmakers weigh benefit vs. cost for homeowners

"Two rooms. Both are 8 feet by 8 feet, and both contain a bed, couch, desk and books and have posters on the walls. Both are also on fire. Somehow, mere moments later, one room is an inferno while the other is just wet.

Such was the scene Thursday at New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord when the Concord Fire Department set two temporary rooms – one equipped with a sprinkler system and one without – ablaze to demonstrate the extinguishing power of sprinklers.

The demonstration was timely since the state Legislature is set to vote on a bill that would bar the state fire marshal and, at least temporarily, local communities from requiring builders of new one- and two-family homes to install sprinkler systems.

The ban on cities and towns requiring residential sprinklers would come in the form of a three-year moratorium on sprinkler requirements for one- and two-family homes. That ban would not include communities that already have such requirements, according to the bill.

Last week, a state Senate committee recommended that the bill, House Bill 1486, should be passed, and the full Senate is scheduled to vote on the measure Wednesday."

-Nashua Telegraph