Condos spurn sprinkler systems

They’re unaffordable, residents maintain

A state law is supposed to make condos safer from fire, but most buildings plan to save money by protecting only their common areas, not individual units.

The law requires condo buildings taller than 75 feet and built before 1994 to either install sprinklers in each unit or fortify fire protection to the satisfaction of a safety inspector.

Giving condo buildings a second option — where they pass a safety inspection with modern fire codes in mind — was seen as a compromise by the state for condo associations that don’t want to install sprinklers in every condo unit.

The second option could entail adding sprinklers in common areas such as the lobby and hallways, installing smoke-control

systems and sectioning off parts of the building with fireproof doors. This second option could be far cheaper, but fire officials say it is not as safe.

None is as effective as installing a complete sprinkler system, which the vast majority of buildings appear intent on avoiding, South Florida fire marshals told the Sun Sentinel.

Hallandale Fire Rescue Division Chief Lori Williams is concerned this reluctance to upgrade to the highest standard is prioritizing money over saving lives and could lead to deaths that could have been prevented. “I wish there was a way to make it more affordable [for condo owners] so we are not threatening hardships on fixed incomes,” Williams said.

Meanwhile, some condo buildings plan to put off improvements altogether, hoping state legislators do away with a 2019 deadline for making the upgrades.

“This is an attempt to extract billions of dollars from residents of these high-rise condos who can’t afford to have an assessment on them,” said Pio Ieraci, president of the 16,000-resident Galt Mile Community Association, which represents 28 buildings in Fort Lauderdale. “We have no intent at all to comply with the law that should have never taken place in the first place.”

He acknowledges that sprinklers make a building safer, but “trying to retrofit them after the fact is simply wrong.”

Estimates for how much it will cost for complete sprinkler systems compared with going for the fire-safety upgrades are all over the map.

Galt Mile’s Ieraci said a safety inspector’s evaluation for what would need to be done for the 370-unit Playa Del Sol to meet safety codes left him with a list of work that would have cost $15,000 to $25,000 per unit.

But Buddy Dewar, retired director of the State Fire Marshals Association, said those estimates were grossly inflated.

“If that was the case, there would be tens of thousands of sprinkler contractors moving to the state of Florida,” said Dewar, who also was a Plantation firefighter and superintendent of the State Fire College.

A 2009 state report shows buildings installed complete sprinkler retrofits at a cost per unit that ranged from $810 to $2,083. That’s $924 to $2,376 in 2017, when adjusted for inflation.

With few condos pulling permits to have any upgrades done so far, the deadline that’s already been delayed twice has now crept close enough that people on both sides of this issue agree it’s going to be difficult for all the condos without sprinklers to complete the required upgrades by the 2019 deadline.

Across Florida through the years, an estimated 5,600 high-rises need sprinklers or general fire-code upgrades, according to a 2009 state report.

The state hasn’t published a follow-up report, but local fire officials estimate at least 200 South Florida high-rises fall into a category, where condos say they won’t add a full sprinkler system and now must do some upgrades to make their aging buildings safer.

All of Hallandale Beach’s 39 high-rise condos without sprinkler systems have informed the fire marshal that they don’t plan to add them, officials said. Also, the majority of high-rises have done the same in Fort Lauderdale, with at least 50 choosing that, and in Hollywood, 33 planning not to add them, fire marshals say.

Out of Pompano’s 64 high-rises, 21 of them say they won’t add complete sprinklers. Eleven of 22 high rises in Lauderdale-By-theSea were built without sprinklers and don’t plan to add them.

In Deerfield, the city’s sole high-rise is exempt from having to act on the requirement because of an external walkway.

Richard Maggiore, president of the Diamondhead condominums in Hillsboro Beach, which was built in 1965, said he doesn’t understand why passing an annual fire inspection is not enough.

“Leave us alone,” he said. “We’ve been here all these years. We haven’t had one issue.”

Maggiore said just upgrading his building’s alarm system 10 years ago was bad enough — a $100,000 cost split between 66 units.

State legislation passed last year would have allowed owners in older condo buildings to opt out of fire safety upgrades entirely if two-thirds of the condo association agreed. A condo association that couldn’t reach a two-thirds agreement wouldn’t have been required to meet the deadline for the safety upgrades until 2022, according to the bill that passed.

Gov. Rick Scott vetoed the legislation, citing a London high-rise fire that killed 80 in June.

“While I am particularly sensitive to regulations that increase the cost of living, the recent London high-rise fire … illustrates the importance of life-safety protections,” Scott said in June.

The bill’s sponsor, state Rep. George Moraitis, R-Fort Lauderdale, is vowing to get some relief for his condodwelling constituents for this upcoming legislative session.

“If the owners want to have these protections, it should be up to them to decide that,” he said, arguing that requiring these fire upgrades are, for senior citizens, the same as being taxed out of one’s home.

The Fort Lauderdale Fire Department plans a public demonstration Sept. 16 aimed to persuade people that adding sprinklers through a entire building is worth the cost. In a parking lot on Northeast 33rd Avenue, firefighters plan to set fire to side-by-side rooms, one with sprinklers and the other without.

“Seeing the devastation in the room without sprinklers makes you a believer” in complete sprinkler systems, Hallandale’s Williams said.