While it makes perfect sense that the company installing your fire sprinkler system should install a system around your house, we have been very late to this development. In fact we may be the last company to offer this kind of installation. Over the last five years, the Reno / Lake Tahoe area has experienced several wild fires, which many people in our direct families were in the path of and greatly affected by; we know first hand of the devastation a loss of your home to a fire will be, and how no matter how much insurance you carry (if you can get insurance), it will never be enough to really regain what you have lost, including rebuilt time. Many of the homes we work on are second or third homes for people who don't have full time residences living on site. Often a fire can happen in Tahoe or Reno, and you won’t even hear about it until it ends up on a news flash on your TV or social media, and while we can’t guarantee that our Wild Fire Wall will prevent your house from catching fire (and no one else can either), we can tell you that we’re late to the game for a reason. 45 years means people rely on our word, and we had to make sure our word meant something.

There are no codes that regulate an outside fire sprinkler system, which means anyone can do anything they want and tell you it will work. There has been no testing over the years, or even very much anecdotal evidence of their effectiveness. The truth is, the emerging need for this kind of system is caused by diminishing availability of effective fire insurance. If this was not a factor, paying the often expensive price tag for a system of this kind wouldn’t even be something people would think about. Insurance in our area is now becoming almost impossible to get, and even if you manage to get a policy, you will find its terms to be less than adequate in case of an incident. During these past five years we have been watching. We have been curious about the systems others were installing and we paid attention using our “everyday eye” for fire damage mitigation. Eventually our engineer and I developed a system, which borrows all the knowledge of installing an indoor fire sprinkler system (which is designed to provide you egress) and used that knowledge to anticipate a remotely activated Wild Fire Wall which we are sure is the best option in this market today. We took a lot of things other systems were offering and addressed our concerns. We came up with the following issues we wanted to address in our system that we found to be lacking in the similar systems we were seeing in the area. This all being said, we are not, in any way, saying that another system will not work, we are just saying we think we offer something better.

First off, we saw that there was a severe labor issue with some of these systems, in that most of the companies were subcontracting to outside local contractors to install their job; which we felt would lead to inconsistency in the work. We’re local fire sprinkler guys who pipe-fit every day, all day, and can service and repair these systems as needed with the same guys who installed it. We felt that knowledgeable service technicians were one of the keys to making this kind of system viable. We have also now installed these systems so that you are hiring a company with experience, although the actual work is closely related to the work we do everyday … well.

We were concerned about water issues, in that when there is a wild fire the fire department will use most of the water in the city’s system to fight the actual fire, and although structure protection in our area is about the best in the world, often there is little water to utilize a system of this kind, which lets out close to if not more than 100 GPM’s a minute. Every system we design uses water demand and hydraulic calculations to determine the the optimal spray, for the optimal amount of time, to give you the best chance of preventing a structure fire at your house.

We were concerned about activation. We feel we have solved this problem. Many of the systems we saw had various ways of activating the system. They used everything from manual valves, to local fire department notifications, to remote solenoid valves to turn on the system, using various ways of detection. We decided to go with an “all in” approach to this problem. We feel we have found a way to anticipate the fire to notify the home owner, then detect the fire to trigger the system which will dampen the structure enough to deter any stray embers that the wind may blow towards your house. We also felt that there is an amount of time we thought should be the minimum about of time of the system actually working so that it gave you the best possible outcome. Because at the end of the day, water will be a finite resource, we have worked in an effective fire retardant option for the last 30 minutes of operation. We wanted to keep chemicals out of the equation until the last possible moment, for fears of staining the siding on a home, to killing the landscaping. While we think it’s a necessary part of this system, we feel that it should be used cautiously.

We were concerned about power and internet being the means of activation. What we learned from the local fires we have experienced, was that power and internet were the first things that were shut down when a wild fire occurs. My parents lost power and internet for weeks during the last fire here in Reno, and were evacuated as well. To make matters worse, strong winds prompted the power company to shut down power to these areas long before the fire was anywhere near the structures, and the people who used backup generators had used up all their fuel long before they were evacuated. Our system will utilize backup power that will only be used for this system, and internet that can’t be turned off provided by either satellite or cellular service.

It sounds silly, but we thought the systems which were being installed were ugly. We work on homes which have put in extensive consideration to aesthetics and curb appeal, and the thought of a system degrading that look gave us pause. While the system needs equipment to work, we have a couple different ways of either hiding the pipe, or using matted rectangular, square, or round escutcheons to add to the aesthetics rather than take away from them.

Nothing will take the place of defensible space, and using materials on your roof or house that don’t catch fire or burn easily. We believe that timing is everything for these systems. The earlier we can set up the infrastructure for the system the better concealed and effective your system will be. Hopefully we will be laying the groundwork for testing and code writing for these systems, so trust is less of an issue. As it stands now, however, trust is the most important thing to have in installing a Fire Water Wall; trust in the engineer, trust in the contractor, and trust in the installers. We’ve been operating and bartering in trust for all those things for more than 40 years now.

Because these systems are very heavily rooted in conception, design, installation and service, we can offer you examples and presentations of our work upon request. Every home is different, and these systems are expensive, so taking a minute to give you a detailed explanation, discussion, and presentation, will almost always have to be part of this process, so that all issues and questions can be addressed. We are excited to be on the leading edge of this technology and service, and as in everything we do we will always have the philosophy only being as good as your last job. It is a high bar.