The reliability and effectiveness of sprinklers often is used to justify the removal of requirements for fire and smoke dampers from model building codes. However, there is ample evidence smoke is the major killer in building fires and that it causes injury, sickness, and property damage. A 1997 National Fire Protection Association study found a significant percentage of fires in sprinklered and non-sprinklered buildings resulted in smoke damage beyond the fire floor. If an automatic sprinkler system failed and there were no smoke dampers in a building, smoke spread most certainly would increase.
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