LAKELAND, Fla. - November 02, 2015 - Studies show that manufactured homes built after federal standards were imposed in 1976 are more fire resistant than comparable site-built homes - and three times safer than pre-HUD code mobile homes.
The National Fire Prevention Association (NFPA), Fire Analysis and Research Division's John R. Hall, Jr., authored a report entitled Manufactured Home Fires. That study and the experience of expert Martin Montgomery, Professional Engineer with RCS Enterprises, LP, as well as other industry professionals are considered.
The NFPA report determined that manufactured homes are as safe or safer than conventional, on site-built, construction. Hall's study also details data that concludes that manufactured homes are some three times safer than the mobile homes of 40 years ago.
But no residence is completely fire proof, and as we enter the winter fire season, everyone should be armed with the latest fire safety information.
In Keeping the Home Fires From Burning: Fire Safety and the Modern Manufactured Home, award-winning consumer reporter Jan Hollingsworth takes a look at the debate over mandatory sprinkler systems and the human factor that contributes to the majority of home fires.
"Sprinklers are an option that homeowners can choose to have installed," says Deanna Fields, Executive Director of the Manufactured Housing Association of Oklahoma. “Some of our factories incorporate sprinkler systems in certain areas of the house, such as the kitchen or furnace, if the consumer wants to pay for it,” she says.
Disabled smoke alarms, overloaded electrical circuits and improper use of cooktops and ovens for heating lead the list of seasonal fire risks, which are often mitigated by post HUD-code escape windows, flame-resistant wall coverings and stringent construction standards that transformed the infamous tinderboxes of old into today's durable factory-built homes.
Hall's report explains that “A manufactured home is not a motor home or a trailer, and although it is often called a 'mobile home'; it is not that either.”
Keeping the Home Fires From Burning smokes out the myths and the realities of fires and modern factory-built homes, offering timely insights for reducing the risks this fire season.
(Photo caption and credits: Fires in housing of all prices and types often increase during the winter months. Conventional house ablaze, left, credit - genius-com. Modern manufactured home living room with fireplace, right, credit - Sunshine Homes Inc., Red Bay, AL.)
Link to full story: Keeping the Home Fires from Burning: Fire Safety and the Modern Manufactured Home
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