Greater Channahon Minooka Area Chamber Of Commerce Inc issued the following announcement on June 6.
There was a million dollars in damage at a recent fire at Menards in Morris, Illinois; however, it is a multi-million dollar building with millions of dollars of inventory - this could have been much worse. Without the presence of fire sprinklers that kept the fire under control until firefighters arrived, firefighters would have been dealing with a major fire.
Sprinklers will react rapidly to extinguish a fire and usually only one or two sprinkler heads activate (not like the movies where every sprinkler goes off when the fire alarm sounds). This allows people to escape the danger.
Sprinklers keep the fire at a small stage, which is much safer for firefighters who then enter the building to control the sprinkler system, and extinguish the remaining fire, as opposed to fighting a large, out of control, fire.
Sprinklers save property and therefore jobs. As a large employer for the area, many people would have been out of jobs had major damage or destruction occurred during this fire.
Recently passed legislation allows small businesses to deduct the expense of installing a fire sprinkler system on their federal taxes. Under Section 179 of the tax code, fire sprinkler installation can be expensed up to $1 million for each year of the expense. This incentive makes it possible for restaurants, retail outlets, night clubs and other small businesses to install, retrofit or upgrade their current fire suppression systems. Also, small businesses can deduct the interest from any loan they receive for this type of renovation.
Original source can be found here.
Source: Greater Channahon Minooka Area Chamber Of Commerce Inc
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