The Windham Town Council is reviewing a new fire code that would require sprinkler systems be installed in all new residential or commercial buildings, an idea that is now being considered by other communities in southern Maine.

It is a rule that is long overdue, said Council Chairwoman Carol Waig, who feels that sprinklers could have lessened the damage caused by a number of fires in Windham over the last year, and that a new requirement would eventually end up rescuing more than buildings.

“It does save lives,” she said.

But the new code could end up increasing the cost of construction and hurt the local economy, said contractors reacting to a similar requirement recently introduced in Westbrook, which will now force builders to put sprinklers in all new homes.

“People are counting every penny. The housing market is in the toilet right now. It’s just going to be more of a damper on development,” said Chris Wilson of Les Wilson and Sons.

The new fire code that has made Westbrook among the strictest in the state when it comes to sprinkler systems. That’s a distinction that Westbrook’s fire inspector, Capt. Chuck Jarrett, doesn’t mind.

In the 10 years he’s served as fire inspector, Jarrett said, “Westbrook has been very proactive in fire prevention and life safety.”

It is an example that Waig said Windham should follow. A video councilors viewed at Tuesday’s meeting showed two similar rooms being overtaken by a fire. The room without sprinklers was engulfed within two minutes. The other room, equipped with sprinklers, had a far different fate.

“It killed the fire within seconds. It makes a huge, huge difference,” Waig said, pointing to a fire on Route 35 in Windham earlier this year that destroyed a commercial building. “If that had sprinklers, it probably would have done a lot less damage.”

Saving buildings from damage is just the beginning, firefighters said.

According to Jarrett, people who are in a house fire where there are working smoke detectors and sprinklers have an 84 percent better chance of survival than those in houses without them.

But the systems come at a price.

Wilson said a sprinkler system he recently installed in a commercial building cost him $8,000. According to Jarrett, for a single-family home on public water, installing a sprinkler system would cost about $4,000. Regardless, Wilson said, it’s money people don’t have right now.

“If we were in a peak economic time, it wouldn’t be so bad,” Wilson said. “I think this is the worst time to start something like that.”

Wilson isn’t the only local developer speaking out. Wilson and Anthony Latini, of the Latini Co., said the new regulation is making them think twice about if and when they will build in Westbrook – and that’s not only going to affect their own pockets.

“It’s a trickle-down effect,” Latini said, if he decides to delay his projects. “I don’t hire the surveyor who’s based in Westbrook. I don’t hire the excavator who’s based in Westbrook. It doesn’t just hurt me. It hurts the whole local economy.”

However, Latini and Wilson both see that stricter sprinkler requirements are the wave of the future, and aren’t opposed to seeing the requirement eventually come through. According to Rich McCarthy, a member of the state’s Technical Building Codes and Standards Board, which was recently formed to study and adopt the 2009 fire code statewide, the board will be grappling with sprinkler requirements in the not-so-distant future, and, because it’s a heated issue, will likely be looking to the public for input.

But Jarrett and City Administrator Jerre Bryant believe someone has to be out in front of the issue, and they’re glad the Westbrook City Council supported the change.

“This is the direction the country’s moving in. Whether it’s this year, next year or two years from now, this is going to be the requirement,” Bryant said, and as it becomes the norm, he believes the price of the sprinkler systems will drop.

In Gorham, Fire Chief Bob Lefebvre said an ordinance has been in place since 1987 requiring single-family homes in subdivisions in outlying areas of the town to be built with sprinkler systems. He said he’d like to see the requirement extended to all new homes, but hasn’t gotten support from the Town Council.

“I think it’s a smart move,” LeFebvre said about the change in Westbrook. “I congratulate them on their progressiveness.”

Scarborough Fire Chief Mike Thurlow said he, too, is supportive of the stricter requirement, but figures the state will implement it in its code soon enough and, for now, he’s willing to wait for that to happen.

“Eventually, it’s all going to shake out anyway,” Thurlow said. “We will be doing something if it doesn’t happen on its own.”

If the requirement does become more widespread, new homebuyers would find themselves bearing the brunt of the costs, said Peter Busque of Busque Construction in Windham.

“It’s just going to cost the homeowner more,” he said. “We just pass it on.”

Reporter Ben Bragdon also contributed to this story.