County Funds Sprinklers For Small Group Homes
By Donna St. George
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Beginning this fall, as many as 40 group homes across Montgomery County will be refurbished with county-financed fire sprinkler systems, as officials seek to make them safe without displacing residents who may have nowhere else to go.
The new program, for group homes with five or fewer beds, will help protect some of the county's most vulnerable residents, officials said, including the elderly, developmentally disabled, chronically mentally ill and children.
It will be funded by a $250,000 special appropriation from the county budget approved in late July by the County Council.
"Everyone agreed that it was a serious problem, and it had to be addressed," said council member Phil Andrews (D-Gaithersburg-Rockville), who leads the council's Public Safety Committee, which had been working on the issue for a year.
Fire inspectors have begun working with county Department of Health and Human Services officials to identify which homes will have the highest priority. Andrews said he hopes "a number of them, if not all of them, will be completed by the end of the year."
The idea to finance the automatic fire sprinkler systems -- expected to cost $6,000 to $10,000 per home -- came after fire inspectors issued citations to about 90 of the 285 group homes they inspected, or almost one in three, Assistant Fire Chief Michael A. Donahue said.
Under county code, the homes must have either sprinkler systems or bedroom windows large enough for a firefighter to climb through and make a rescue: 5.7 square feet for upper levels and five square feet for the ground level.
"Certainly if there was a fire, there would be an issue" otherwise, Donahue said.
About 50 percent of the group homes cited for safety have already made the improvements needed to make them safe, Donahue said. But others, many of them nonprofit organizations that serve clients receiving public benefits, lacked the resources or the landlord's help, he said.
This was especially true in homes for the developmentally disabled, some of them rental properties, in older areas of Rockville, Gaithersburg, Wheaton and Silver Spring.
"It would have meant a hardship for us," said Alan Lovell, chief executive of CHI Centers, a nonprofit organization that operates 25 group homes in Montgomery County.
Lovell said he does not think his clients are in danger as they await the installation of sprinklers.
In keeping with state requirements, group homes for the developmentally disabled must do emergency drills monthly, he said. Also, he said, staff members are on duty round-the-clock, not just for safety but also to get people out into the community. "We all want to make sure our participants are safe," he said.
As many as 174 group home residents could have been displaced if the county had not acted, officials said. The new program, said council member Andrews, means that "no one is being kicked out."
The program will be administered by the county's Department of Housing and Community Affairs, which already works with group homes on loans for other improvements.
The widespread safety problems have arisen during a boom in group homes across the county. For a number of years, Health and Human Services officials checked them for fire code compliance, but the inspections were not as rigorous as they are now, officials said. About two years ago, they asked fire inspectors to get involved.
Donahue recalled two fires in group homes in Montgomery since he joined the fire department 30 years ago, but no injuries.
Even so, there is potential for tragedy, especially because some group home residents have health conditions -- advanced Alzheimer's disease, for example -- that make it more difficult for them to walk out on their own in the event of an emergency.
The advantage of a fire sprinkler system, activated by intense heat, is that "it's like having a firefighter in every room," Donahue said.
By citing the homes that violate the fire code, the county will "keep the problem on the record" until it is resolved, Donahue said.
To benefit from the county's installation of fire sprinklers, the homes must already be in place, serving predominantly clients who are assisted by public agencies, and must commit to continuing as group homes for three years, or else pay back a prorated portion of the cost.
The installation of sprinkler systems, Donahue said, is an important step toward prevention. "When someone calls 911 and the firetrucks roll," he said, "you're in damage-control mode. You can never turn the clock back."
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