Tyco woos builders
By Martha Entwistle
Updated Wed March 1, 2006
PHILADELPHIA--Officials at Tyco Fire and Building Products plan to tap those who've actively opposed home fire sprinklers to join in their campaign to promote them.
This January, Tyco introduced a new home fire-sprinkler product and simultaneously launched a publicity campaign designed to get homebuilders to jump on the home-fire sprinkler bandwagon.
"We have three target audiences, the homebuilder, the consumer and the fire protection community; we're starting with the homebuilders," said Carmine Schiavone, vice president of business development at Tyco Fire and Building Products.
"Three-thousand people die every year in fires in homes without sprinklers," he said. "It happens one and two people at a time, not in one big event, so you don't hear much about it."
Schiavone's group attended the January International Builders Show in Orlando, where their pro-sprinkler message was well-received, he said. Schiavone's group plans to attend several other ida law that exempts one- and two-family dwellings from mandatory sprinklers. This exempts us from NFPA 101," he said. The sentiment among builders has been that they should do everything possible to retain this exemption, Glenn said. Schiavone said Tyco plans to build a business development team that will work with builders to install sprinklers in model homes and to eventually offer financial incentives to builders who directly promote Tyco's products.
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