timmmay:
Obviously, but replacement is almost as good as protection so long as everyone gets out ok. Very little of what we have is irreplaceable, at least to me. Sprinkler sounds like a good idea for a new house, retrofit in my old house with lowered ceilings would be a bit of a nightmare.
This.
The most important part of your fire protection is to be able to get safely out of your own house. Thats why smoke detectors are so important - in the day we can often smell the fire quicker than any smoke detector can detect them. But at night we need them to wake us up if there is a fire, because we can sleep right through them.
In Norway it is the smoke the kills the most people, not the fire itself. So being woken up before you are poisoned by the smoke is important.