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04 · Wildfire and the WUI

Question 37

Can sprinklers prevent a wildfire?

Yes – by keeping a house fire from becoming a wildfire. The National Interagency Fire Center tracks structure origin as its own wildfire cause category as a fire that started in a building and moved to the wildland. A residential sprinkler confines a fire to the room where it started 96% of the time. A fire that stays in one room does not reach the eaves, the deck, the tree line, or the house next door. Flashover can occur in under three minutes. A fire engine cannot deliver water that quickly. A sprinkler can. Jefferson County’s own Wildfire Resiliency Code is designed to “mitigate structure fires from spreading to wildland fuels.” That’s exactly what sprinklers do.

Sources

  1. Wildfire cause categories, including structure origin., National Interagency Fire Center
  2. U.S. Experience with Sprinklers, 2017–2021 data. Death, injury, property loss and containment rates., National Fire Protection Association
  3. Adopted March 10, 2026; effective July 1, 2026. Purpose clause, structure hardening and defensible space., Jefferson County Wildfire Resiliency Code

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