Homebuilders in one Alabama city have won an appeal over the placement of heat and smoke detectors. The Hoover Building Code of Appeals Board in Alabama voted 3-1 to allow homebuilders in the area to install heat and smoke detectors in basement garages instead of using a gypsum board ceiling between the garage and upstairs living areas, according to the Birmingham News.
The appeals board vote came despite protests from the Hoover Fire Department, which believes the gypsum board ceiling requirement is necessary to slow the spread of fire from the garage to higher floors, as well as to protect the structural integrity of those higher floors for the safety of occupants and the firefighters trying to rescue them.
Former Hoover building official Gerald Smith testified, however, that gypsum board could create more of a hazard by not allowing smoke to get upstairs as quickly and alert residents to a fire below, and that if a fire is starved of air, homeowners could possibly be put in more danger by encountering a backdraft when opening a door leading to the fire in the garage.
Since taking effect in January 2002, Hoover officials had allowed homebuilders to install sprinklers or drop ceilings in garages instead of following the gypsum board ceiling requirement. However, builders had objected to those options as well.
