Why Hydro-Storm Sprinkler Systems

Area Fire Protection for the Wildland Rural & Urban Interface Setting

"A Protective Water Shield for Survival"

The first external water sprinklers were developed in North America during the later half of the eighteen hundreds.  They have been used in a wide variety of applications ever since. One such application has been in fire protection, in particular on roof tops and over the area surrounding one’s home.

While this application is not new, the techniques used and innovative designs in products are and there is a better outcome. Home fire protection is a very serious matter that is not always on the forefront of people with busy lives.  Yet, fire protection needs to given high priority especially for those who live in the rural and urban interface. 

In Canada and around the world, governments advocate strongly for the use of sprinkler systems to protect of structural property such as homes, summer cottages, cabins, resorts, ranches and farms. Every year, rural and urban dwellers are besieged by the threat of wildland fires. Many have lost their homes, valuable possessions and in some measure have succumbed to bodily injury and in some instances, death.

External sprinkler systems are not intended to put out a wildland fire.  They are designed to minimize the risks of damage that the fires cause. 

Purpose-built Rural & Urban Interface Sprinkler Systems essentially work like this:

1. To soak or wet down a particular area to reduce damage to buildings and landscapes by high flying embers and radiant heat associated with a nearby forest fire.
2. Increase the moisture level in the surrounding atmosphere, thereby lowering the ambient temperature and raising the humidity point in and around the area that is protected.

The purpose is to hopefully divert the fire away.  The sprinklers convert an environment that fuels a fire to one that inhibits it.   Protected property can be bypassed altogether, as seen in the following photograph.

A sprinkler system should be set up and operational at least two hours in advance of a pending fire threat; four hours is better.

Sprinkler systems do not guarantee that you will succeed in your protection initiative, no one can predict with any certainty the outcome.  Many factors affect fire behaviour.  Wind is one factor. It controls the direction and the size of a fire. Is responsible for spreading burning embers great distances and to a great extent starts new fire.

High winds especially can effect the efficiency of some sprinkler systems and render it less effective than where little or no wind exists. All purchased purpose built sprinkler systems of any quality & design will likely have a greater degree of operating efficiency than home built units or products designed for other purposes.

There is no better time than right now to prepare for the 2008 fire season. Select your purpose-built Hydro-Storm Sprinkler System and have a ready-to-go water-shield on demand when you need it the most.