The high-rise next time
Fatal fire shows need for high-risk building list
Early Monday morning, a sevenalarm Downtown blaze in an 18-story high-rise killed a 75-year-old resident and wounded three firefighters. Fire Chief Darryl E. Jones said the fire was particularly difficult to fight, in part because the building did not have a sprinkler system installed on every floor.
Built in 1907, the highrise is exempt from installing a sprinkler system. In Pittsburgh, only buildings built after 1981 are required to have a sprinkler system. Older buildings such as this one often have no sprinkler system, or install sprinklers only when renovating the lower floors.
The fire safety community and landlords have debated this exemption for almost three decades. Firefighters often advocate for sprinklers, which limit material damage to a structure, use less water to quell a fire and — most important — save the lives of residents and responders alike. Landlord and business interest groups point to the high cost of retroactively adding a sprinkler system to the upper floors of an older building.
This tragedy should be seen as an opportunity to reopen this conversation about sprinkler system requirements in older high-rise buildings. To have a productive dialogue, city officials need information about the actual threat that these sprinkler-deficient older buildings pose to the city. Alarmingly, no one knows exactly the location or even the number of these high-risk older buildings. This information could be essential to public safety.
Jim Kress, business manager with Sprinkler Fitters Local Union 542 in Millvale, told the Post-Gazette he did not know how many older Pittsburgh high-rise buildings do not have sprinkler coverage. “Boy, that’s a great question. I wish I could tell you,” he said. “I’d be guessing. Not enough, obviously. One is too many.”
Maura Kennedy, director of the city Department of Permits, Licenses and Inspections, also does not have this information readily on file. She said the city didn’t have a complete list of all buildings without sprinkler systems but is doing “pro-active inspections” of buildings which would, among other information, record the status of sprinklers in the building.
Being without up-to-date information about potentially dangerous buildings is a hazard itself. As a result of this fire, the city should make a publicly available inventory and map of all buildings without full sprinkler coverage. Firefighters need this information as they prepare to quash a blaze, as buildings without sprinklers pose unique challenges. Although residents usually know whether their building has sprinklers, what about adjacent properties?
As Ms. Kennedy noted, the city already has a website documenting all structures that violate city fire code: pittsburghpa.gov/pli/buildingeye. Updating this website to include a citywide inventory on sprinkler coverage must be a priority to improve fire safety in Pittsburgh. Next time smoke curls over Downtown, the city should be ready.