1.
This Act may be cited as the
Fire Sprinkler Incentive Act of
2005
.
2.
The Congress finds
that—
(1)
since the publication of the original study and comprehensive
list of recommendations in America Burning, written in 1974, requested advances
in fire prevention through the installation of automatic sprinkler systems in
existing buildings have yet to be fully implemented;
(2)
fire departments responded to approximately 1,700,000 fires in
2001;
(3)
there were 3,745 non-terrorist related deaths in the United
States and almost 21,000 civilian injuries resulting from fire in 2001;
(4)
99 firefighters were killed in 2001, excluding the terrorist acts
on September 11th;
(5)
fire caused $8,900,000,000 in direct property damage in 2001, and
sprinklers are responsible for a 43 to 70 percent reduction in property damage
from fires in public assembly, educational, residential, commercial, industrial
and manufacturing buildings;
(6)
fire departments respond to a fire every 18 seconds, a fire
breaks out in a structure every 60 seconds and in a residential structure every
80 seconds in the United States;
(7)
the Station Nightclub in West Warwick, Rhode Island, did not
contain an automated sprinkler system and burned down, killing 99 people on
February 20, 2003;
(8)
due to an automated sprinkler system, not a single person was
injured from a fire beginning in the Fine Line Music Café in Minneapolis after
the use of pyrotechnics on February 17, 2003;
(9)
the National Fire Protection Association has no record of a fire
killing more than 2 people in a completely sprinklered public assembly,
educational, institutional or residential building where the system was
properly installed and fully operational;
(10)
sprinkler systems dramatically improve the chances of survival of
those who cannot save themselves, specifically older adults, young children and
people with disabilities;
(11)
the financial cost of upgrading fire counter measures in
buildings built prior to fire safety codes is prohibitive for most property
owners;
(12)
many State and local governments lack any requirements for older
structures to contain automatic sprinkler systems;
(13)
under the present straight-line method of depreciation, there is
a disincentive for building safety improvements due to an extremely low rate of
return on investment; and
(14)the Nation is in
need of incentives for the voluntary installation and retrofitting of buildings
with automated sprinkler systems to save the lives of countless individuals and
responding firefighters as well as drastically reduce the costs from property
damage.
3.
Classification of automatic fire sprinkler systems
(a)
Subparagraph (B) of section 168(e)(3) of the Internal Revenue
Code of 1986 (relating to 5-year property) is amended by striking
and
at the end of clause (v), by striking the period at the end
of clause (vi) and inserting , and
, and by adding at the end
the following:
(vii)
any automatic fire sprinkler system placed in service after the
date of the enactment of this clause in a building structure which was placed
in service before such date of enactment.
.
(b)The table contained in section 168(g)(3)(B) of the
Internal Revenue Code of 1986 (relating to special rule for certain property
assigned to classes) is amended by inserting after the item relating to
subparagraph (B)(iii) the following:
.
(c)
Definition of automatic fire sprinkler system
Subsection (i) of section 168 of the Internal Revenue Code of
1986 is amended by adding at the end the following:
(17)
Automated fire sprinkler system
The term automated fire sprinkler system means
those sprinkler systems classified under one or more of the following
publications of the National Fire Protection Association—
(A)
NFPA 13, Installation of Sprinkler Systems,
(B)
NFPA 13 D, Installation of Sprinkler Systems in One and Two
Family Dwellings and Manufactured Homes, and
(C)
NFPA 13 R, Installation of Sprinkler Systems in Residential
Occupancies up to and Including Four Stories in Height.
.
(d)The amendments made by this section shall apply to property
placed in service after the date of the enactment of this Act.