Wawanesa Insurance has awarded the Setting Lake Cottage Owners Association a $15,000 grant to provide a rebate to cottagers who install rooftop sprinklers systems.

Rooftop sprinkler systems help protect cottages from wildfires by dousing them with water. Soaking your cottage and a 30-foot buffer around it creates a wet blanket – moisture bubble – that helps protect your property from the intense heat of a wildfire (or nearby structural fire) and airborne embers.

In the event of a wildfire, if you are evacuated, MB Wildfire Service will hook you and your neighbours up to the department’s high-pressure pumps and water supply so your system will continue to work while you’re away. In emergency situations rooftop sprinkler systems save wildfire crews precious time. 

You’ll need hoses, valves and splitters (water thieves), sprinkler heads, and the proper fittings for your pump if you chose to have a pump.

Here’s what you need to know to help protect your property and receive the grant.  

• Sprinklers come in a variety of sizes and water spray radiuses. The key to a good setup is an adequate water spray radius that overlaps with the spray from another sprinkler head.

• Purchase and install a Buckner or Rain Bird sprinkler head with a mounting device that attaches to your rooftop or an adjacent pole higher than the peak of your roof.

• SLCOA will consider other sprinkler heads that are made of metal of sufficient quality to withstand 100 PSI.

• Do not purchase sprinklers with plastic components. They will melt under intense wildfire heat and cannot withstand the pressure of MB Wildfire Services pumps that they will be connected to if the community is at risk, and you are ordered to evacuate.

• Purchase a ¾” econoflo hose with brass GHT fittings (garden hose fittings). It is the same diameter as a garden hose but is more durable and flexible. It comes in 100-, 50-, 25-, and 15-foot lengths.

• Solid rubber hoses are also allowed but plastic hosing is not because they melt when in proximity to fire.

• Purchase one water thief with 1 ½” quick-connect ends for each sprinkler. The water thief connects to both your own ¾” econoflo hose and to the 1 ½” inch hoses.

• Purchase 1 ½” quick-connect caps. You will need one or two, depending on your property-specific configuration. You can also use a 1 ½“ wye which is a better system.

• Install the caps on the end of your water line if not using the wye configuration. This will enable MB Wildfire Service to regulate water pressure for the group of cabins in your area that are connected to their system.

• Your caps can be stored on the water thieves if not using the wye configuration and MB Wildfire Service crews will access them as needed.

• Purchase 1 ½” quick-connect forestry hoses (also called “1 ½“ forestry hose with instantaneous forestry fittings”) to connect your water thieves and to your pump if you plan to have one. If you have been evacuated, MB Wildfire Service crews will connect your rooftop sprinkler system so it continues to operate in your absence.

• Please contact Jeff Henry at firechief@settinglake.ca or Rick Morris at deputy@settinglake.ca if you:

  • need information about the number of sprinkler heads you need to protect your property,

  • need advice or assistance configuring and/or installing your system,

  • are looking for a supplier for system components,

  • wish to be added to the wait list for a MB Wildfire-approved sprinkler system, or

  • have installed your system, have applied for the grant, and need to have your system inspected in order to receive the rebate.

Check the diagram showing how to set up a typical 2-sprinkler system with a wye and  a forestry hose  running to a lake pump.