City high-rise fire kills 1
3 firefighters injured in early morning 7-alarm blaze
Thick, choking blackness smothered Shawn Butchko as soon as she stepped into the hallway of Midtown Towers, an 18story apartment building Downtown, early Monday.
She held tight to a firefighter’s hand.
“I tried to breathe, but I couldn’t at all,” she said. “I started to scream, but then I realized I better save my air. It was pitch black, just pitch black.”
With the firefighter’s help, she made it to the stairwell and survived the seven-alarm fire, which left one woman dead, displaced about 100 other residents and renewed questions about the city’s sprinkler requirements. It wasn’t clear when the tenants can return home.
“Sprinklers have been around for about 100 years now — a little more. And in that 100-year time, there has never been a fatality as a result of fire in a building with a working sprinkler system,” Pittsburgh fire Chief Darryl E. Jones said. He advocated tougher sprinkler requirements but said he doesn’t “have any control over that.”
The 18-story high-rise at 643 Liberty Ave. was not equipped with a sprinkler system because it was not required to be, said Ray Czachowski, executive vice president at NDC Real Estate Management, which has managed the building since the 1970s. Built in 1907, it is one of the oldest highrises in Pittsburgh, and now houses a mix of low-income and market-rate tenants.
City inspectors last examined the building in March 2016, at which time no violations were found, said Katie O’Malley, communications coordinator for Mayor Bill Peduto.
Yet fire officials have called for sprinklers to be installed in the building before — once nearly two decades ago after a fire on the 13th floor forced a similar evacuation in 1999. At that time, acting fire chief Peter Micheli called it a “classic example” of why sprinklers are needed in high-rises.
Monday’s blaze began about 3 a.m. on the sixth floor — the same floor where 75-year-old Mary Robinson died, although investigators could not say Monday whether the fire began in her apartment.
Ms. Robinson died from heat and inhalation injuries, according to the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s office. Three firefighters and tworesidents suffered minor injuries.
Two men who were talking outside the building spotted flames shooting out of a window and rushed inside to warn residents. Although the building has a fire alarm and it apparently did sound, some residents said they thought it was a false alarm and one man said he thought it was a neighbor’ssmoke alarm.
Ricco J.L. Martello, 41, and Ryan Brown, 27, ran through the first six floors, banging on doors, but had to turn back when the smoke became too thick.
Before leaving the sixth floor, Mr. Martello knocked on the apartment door where thesmoke and flames seemed tobe coming from.
“Nobody answered,” he said. “No one said anything, no one answered the door.”
As Mr. Martello and Mr. Brown retreated, they passed firefighters headed up, Mr. Brown said.
Chief Jones said the fire was difficult to fight and that several firefighters were trapped at one point while fighting the blaze.
“They were trapped for some time,” he said. “There were a couple of ‘Mayday’ calls ... for firefighters in trouble.”
After initially getting the fire under control, firefighters discovered that the blaze was still burning within the building’s walls, jumping between the seventh and 10th floors in a pipe chase, a space often used to run utilities, Chief Jones said.
The sixth and seventh floors received the most damage, he said. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Workers with the Red Cross and the Salvation Army handed out blankets, coffee, water and food to displaced residents Monday.
The Red Cross set up a temporary shelter at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. Dan Tobin, director of marketing for the American Red Cross Western Pennsylvania Region, estimated there were about 55 people in the shelter bymid-morning Monday.
The Red Cross will assist with people’s immediate need for housing, clothing and food after the fire and will then refer residents to other agencies for longerterm resources, Mr. Tobin said.
Mr. Czachowski could not sayMonday how long repairs will take or when residents might be able to return home. “We don’t have a clue at this point,” he said. “We’ve got to see exactly what the extent of the damage is before we can doanything.”