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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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CONTACT: Michael
J. Herzing |
State Rep. Robert E.
Belfanti |
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Belfanti introduces bill to require sprinklers in care facilities
HARRISBURG, Feb. 26 – Nursing homes, veterans homes, assisted living centers, personal care homes and other facilities where care dependent senior citizens and others are cared for would have to be equipped with automatic sprinklers and other fire safety systems under legislation introduced by state Rep. Robert E. Belfanti Jr.
Belfanti said the bill (H.B. 203) also would create a state revolving loan fund to help facilities pay for the installation of fire suppression and safety systems.
“Many personal care homes and other places where our elderly are cared for are not presently required to have sprinklers or other fire suppression and safety systems,” Belfanti said. “This is a huge gap in the law that can have tragic consequences.”
Belfanti, who is chairman of the House Labor Relations Committee, said he first introduced the legislation several years ago after a fire at a personal care home in his legislative district took the lives of three residents and displaced 14 others.
“If sprinklers and other safety devices had been present, the extent of the damage may have been limited and, much more importantly, loss of life may have been prevented,” he said.
Belfanti’s bill would require facilities to be equipped with automatic sprinkler systems, automatic and manual fire alarms that transmit a signal to the fire department when activated, and cell phones or other forms of emergency communication on each floor or in each wing of a facility for use only during emergencies.
The legislation also would create a revolving loan fund which would be used to provide low-interest loans to personal care homes and other facilities covered by the legislation to help fund installation of sprinklers and other fire safety systems. Belfanti said the loan program would be similar to the one created by the legislature in 2001 to help fund the installation of automatic sprinkler systems in dormitories and other student housing at Pennsylvania universities.
“In addition to saving property and saving lives, this legislation would likely reduce insurance rates for many personal care homes in Pennsylvania,” he said. “In the long term, that would mean savings for both the owners and operators of these facilities, and the patients and their families.”
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