Collins, Colleagues Introduce Firefighter Sprinkler Safety Measure

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Susan Collins (R-ME) and Michael Bennet (D-CO) and Representative Bill Pascrell (D-NJ-09) introduced bipartisan legislation to help place more sprinklers in older high-rise residential buildings where fires are especially dangerous.  The High-Rise Fire Sprinkler Incentive Act would amend the tax code to create a new incentive for building owners to install sprinklers in their structures erected before fire codes required sprinklers.

“The annual cost of fires is enormous, resulting in the deaths of thousands of Americans and causing billions of dollars in property damage.  Fortunately, state-of-the-art sprinkler systems can help avert these tragedies by controlling and extinguishing fires, protecting firefighters, and saving countless lives,” said Senator Collins, Co-Chair of the Congressional Fire Services Caucus.  “Our bipartisan bill would create a tax incentive for property owners to modernize their high-rise buildings and help better protect the community.”

As a direct result of Senator Collins’ efforts, tax reform included deductions for businesses that install fire protection systems.  The High-Rise Fire Sprinkler Incentive Act builds on those efforts by allowing for tax deductions to recover the cost of fire sprinklers over 15 years, instead of 39 years.  The total cost of fire in the U.S. is well over $328 billion and rising.  Fires in high-rise buildings (over 75 feet in height) claim the lives of many civilians and firefighters.  The widespread adoption of fire sprinklers in the last 40 years is one of the elements that has led to an almost 50 percent reduction in fire deaths in the U.S.

Senator Collins has been a longstanding advocate for Maines’ first responders.  When the pandemic first hit early last year, she led a bipartisan effort to include $100 million in the CARES Act for the Assistance to Firefighters Grants Program, emergency funding that has helped improve firefighters’ safety while they continue to serve during the public health crisis.  She also annually leads a bipartisan letter to the Senate Appropriations Committee urging robust funding for FEMA’s firefighter grant programs, which she helped create.

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