Capital costs of losses

It is also worthwhile to compare the cost of a sprinkler system with the costs associated with personal injuries, like accident, disability, and rescue costs, especially as statutory safeguards in the context of fire prevention and protection are mostly aimed at protecting people and saving human life.

Costs incurred for sprinkler systems

Installing a sprinkler system in a 5,000-m2 industrial hall would cost about €20 per square metre nowadays. Over a period of 20 years, an annual outlay of €6,000 must be expected for upkeep and maintenance. The expenditure for a sprinkler system would thus come to €220,000.

Costs incurred for personal injuries

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  Costs associated with workers' compensation insurance In the United States, for instance, injuries involving burns and scalds due to fire or flames cost an average of US$ 123,000 a year (costs in cases of death and injury exceeding US$ 5,000).
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  Loss of earnings Compensation is based on, among other things, the forgone income. A value ensues if we assume that a US citizen has an average annual income of about US$ 50,000. After 20 years he would have earned one million dollars.
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  Rescue costs (i.e. costs per human life saved) Rescue costs represent the quotient of safety costs and risk reduction (number of human lives saved). Safety costs, on the other hand, are financial expenditure for measures that reduce the risk. Rescue costs do not represent the value of a human life but the cost of measures that, for example, prevent death.

Examples of these costs are presented in Table (Examples of rescue costs in the United States), which shows that they can be relatively high. 1 Workers' Compensation Insurance Rating Bureau of California (ed.): 2005 California Workers' Compensation Losses and Expenses, published on 23 June 2006, San Francisco, CA.

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