Sorry, I do not know if that statement is correct or if it was, remains true. What I can say, it sprinkler systems in general have been noted many times in post incident reports as having limited fire damage. Based upon those reports, it would seem prudent that building/Life-Safety Codes requiring sprinkler systems are easily defendable.

While I am not suggesting anyone here holds the opinion that Life-Safely Codes requiring sprinkler, smoke/heat detectors in all homes, businesses, etc. should be at the discretion of the owner. My belief is those who do, have never had to recover the body of a young child (or actually anybody) from the ruins of his/her bedroom because there were no working smoke detectors.

Pete