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Side-by-Side Fire Sprinkler Burn Demonstration
Photos by Harlem-Roscoe Fire Photographer Sheryl Drost
September 16, 2009
Click videos to see each burn
< Click for video with no sprinkler 
<Click for video with sprinkler
Side-by-side Burn Demo
Two rooms were built, but only one was equipped with a fire sprinkler system. Plexiglass was placed across the front so viewers could observe the demonstation.
In the demo, a fire was set in the room with no sprinkler first. It took less than 3-minutes before the room had a flashover of fire. “A flashover is the near simultaneous ignition of all combustible material in an enclosed area. Flashover occurs when the majority of surfaces in a space are heated to the point (known as fire point) at which they give off flammable gases that are hot enough to sustain combustion. Flashover normally occurs at 500 °C (930 °F) for ordinary household combustibles.” Firefighters then extinguished the fire. The room was destroyed.
The second room was equipped with one fire sprinkler. After a little trouble getting the fire to take off, the fire sprinkler went off, and the fire was completely extinguished.
A fire was lit in the room without a fire sprinkler first. It was under 3 minutes when the room flashed over with fire.
Firefighters were used to extinguish this fire.
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The room with a fire sprinkler system was set on fire next.
The sprinklers activated in under 60 seconds, completely extinguishing the fire.
The room without the sprinkler system was completely destroyed.