The state senate moves to keep Missourians from being required to install fire sprinkler systems in any new home. Senator Eric Schmitt’s bill exempts Missouri from the International Residential Code that makes the sprinklers mandatory in all new residential construction. The international code went into effect in 2009, the year the legislature passed a bill making sprinklers a buyer’s option, not a mandatory installation. 

“Smoke detectors really save more lives,” he says.  He says the option has been offered about 2,000 times in St. Louis County and only one home has installed them.  But he says buyers of new homes should have the option to install them if they wish. 

Schmitt says the added cost of installing mandatory sprinkler systems would drive the cost of a new home out of the ability of many people to buy. Schmitt says the cost of sprinkler installation in new homes can run from $7500-$25,000.

The senate will send the bill to the House later.

 Listen to the debate on SB108 8:33 mp3