The following is an email from Angie Gregg, Injury Prevention Specialist, Safe Kids NC with the Office of State Fire Marshal.  The idea for a residential sprinkler display at the NC Home Builders Association Annual Conference was generated during the North Carolina Association of Fire Chiefs Annual Retreat in October 2008.  Through the efforts of the OSFM, the Charlotte Fire Department, the memberships of the NCAFC, the NCSFA, the Fire Marshals Association, and the members of the Home Sprinkler Alliance the display was a great success; a true fire service effort.
 
It is interesting to see the comments at the end of Angie's email.  It should serve as a rallying cry for the North Carolina Fire Service.  To see the display as 'creating damage" in the eyes of the homebuilders demonstrates what we are up against and how much education we need to provide in order to change opinions.  Let's keep the heat on (no pun intended) and promote residential sprinklers at every event we attend.  Education is the key to the success of this initiative.
 
 A special thanks to Angie for her contagious excitement for residential sprinklers and her leadership in making this effort such a success.   Her email follows:
 
I wanted to report on the success of the sprinkler display at the Charlotte Convention Center.  We were there representing the NC Fire Chiefs Association.  Gary Styers and Jason Workman with Mooresville FD,  Ron Klus and Steve Rodr with Morrisville FD, Aaron Miller with Blowing Rock FD and Jim Landis with  Gastonia FD manned the booth and did an outstanding job of educating homebuilders on sprinkler systems. 
 
The firefighters were amazed at the consistency of the attendees that believed that all sprinklers heads will activate in a fire. There were homebuilders that appreciated that we were there because they know sprinklers are coming and they wanted to learn more. There were homebuilders there that were totally against sprinklers but when they left our booth didn't feel as strongly or stated they felt better after talking to us. We had a lot of contact with community college students and their instructors and they were eager to learn about sprinkler systems.  The show was a great success and we had contact with thousands of attendees.  I cannot thank the volunteers enough for coming out and helping.  We were one of the busiest booths and one day we had 6 firefighters and very often they were all busy talking about sprinklers at the same time. 
 
Many thanks to the Home Sprinkler Coalition, NFPA and Blowing Rock FD for their sprinkler displays. The banners and display was very crucial to our success in educating attendees.
 
On Friday I had walked away from our booth.  As I returned two men were walking towards me and I overheard part of their conversation, one of the men pointed towards our booth and said "That sprinkler display booth has done us more damage in the last two days than anything". 
 
We need to continue to attend shows and opportunities like this one as much as we can to continue educating and dispelling the rumors about sprinklers.