AMERICAN FIRE DEATHS CAN BE REDUCED BY 95 PERCENT I have researched and analyzed the fire problem within the

United States for more than 50 years and I have made major contributions to the field that has saved many thousands of lives. What I have learned and shared is that the fire deaths within buildings are almost completely unnecessary. There are inexpensive and logical ways to virtually eliminate fire deaths and injuries within homes and other buildings. And in the process the total cost of fire protection will be dramatically reduced. Yes fire deaths can be near completely eliminated and there will be dramatic reductions in costs, not increases. The reality is that there is no good reason for these fire deaths and injuries to be happening. They are readily preventable. Of course I realize that the public will be skeptical. And the great majority of those within the fire safety field will do all that they can to prevent the application of the solutions I recommend. But a very large part of my recommendations of past years have finally, although reluctantly been accepted into the mainstream of fire technology. And these past contributions are now saving lives every day of the week. So, what I learned the hard way is that changes in the status quo for the better are resisted fiercely by those who are forced to change. But eventually that which works better will eventually be recognized. For those who cannot conceive of an America without daily fire deaths in buildings I attach an article by the President of Star Sprinkler Company, Mr. T. Seddon Duke. His words of wisdom dated September 1959 are as follows: Indeed, figures published by ADT year after year prove that satisfactory sprinkler performance very close to perfection can be realized on this continent. Sprinklers supervised by ADT Central Station Supervisory and Waterflow Alarm Services have had (since 1925) a satisfactory performance record of 99.98 percent. Thus, more than a half century ago it had been confirmed (by valid record keeping) that a fire sprinkler system within buildings controlled fires (over a 35 year period) very close to 100 percent of the time. Another study within Australia and New Zealand revealed that, over a one hundred year record keeping period, sprinklers nearly completely eliminated fire deaths in buildings. Now does that goal of mine, to define the ways to virtually eliminate serious building fires in America is an impossible dream? Well, since there is a 99.9 percent solution to fires and fire deaths, whats the problem many will ask? Ill put it in terms nearly everyone in America will be able to understand. It has been claimed that there is sufficient oil, gas and coal underground in the United States to supply all our needs for at least the next hundred years, some will say the next thousand. However, so long as those resources remain underground the U.S. will be paying a Kings Ransom for foreign energy sources. The problem is government regulations and policies prevent the recovery of those energy sources and there are special interests promoting alternative energy that may keep our energy where we cannot use it. It is the same in the field of fire. Fire creates wealth in many ways and as of the present the dollars outrank the children who are burning. So, there is much more needed to eliminate the American fire problem that just naming the many parts of the solutions. The difficult part is to break through the intentionally created smoke so that the truths can be seen by the public. The first effective and widely recognized sprinkler system was created in fire sprinkler system was developed in To

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As I define the ways to near completely eliminate the property losses, the deaths and the injuries due to building fires, it is a certainty; most fire experts will strive to defeat the solutions. But, as the negatives grow I will continue to place before those with open minds the solutions and the justifications and the proofs. There is one great truth that cannot be defeated and it is that eventually the truth will kill the lies. The people really have no idea of the total cost of fire on this nation. It is mind blowing costly. I provide an estimate of these costs as stated by a branch of our government. Here it is: The U.S. fire problem, on a per capita basis, is one of the worst in the industrial world. To put this in context, the annual losses from floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes and other natural disasters combined in the United States average just a fraction of those from fires. Fire in the United States, 13th Edition, Federal Emergency Management Agency Page 1, Oct 2004 Its been claimed that he percent of a building construction code that applies to the fire problem is about 65 percent. That is the cost of constructing a building is sometimes more than 50 percent of the total cost. This is especially true of hospital construction. The fire codes that have been created to regulate hospital construction have been manipulated beyond reason so that various businesses that profit from the code regulations have prospered enormously. And if say even 25 percent of the cost of constructing a building is fire related, if the mortgage is 4 million dollars; then one million dollars is the cost of fire safety. When that one million dollar cost is calculated over the years of the payout of the financing the total cost can be more than 2 million dollars. The raw construction cost does not include the ongoing costs of the fire departments, increased property taxes due to the increased cost of the building, the fire insurance coverage and other factors. If some of these costs could be omitted and placed in a bank at 5 percent interest, the savings over the life of a building would be many times the initial cost of the building. The fire codes are oriented to maximize the profit from fire.
So, do I say that I have the solutions to fires that will dramatically reduce the overall cost of fire safety while at the same time making America near 100 percent fire safe (as related to buildings). The answer is yes. That is what I plan to do. I am hopeful that there will be many people who are more concerned with the children being burned alive in large numbers than the so-called fire experts who write the American fire codes and those who profit from those codes at the expense of society. Richard M. Patton, rmpatton7@gmail.com Fire Engineer, Researcher, Consultant 6/1/2011