Business Picks Up for City’s Fire Drill Man

Before the First Interstate Bank building fire, Ernest J. Mistrik’s calendar was busy with appointments through the middle of June. By Friday afternoon, he was booked into September.

In the last two days, Mistrik, one of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s two full-time fire safety specialists, has fielded dozens of telephone calls from high-rise building managers anxious to have him monitor their fire drills.

“It’s understandable,” Mistrik said. “It takes a tragedy like this to get people thinking about fire safety.”

The occupants of every floor of more than 800 high-rise buildings in Los Angeles are required to get up from their desks and shuffle down stairwells and fire escapes at least once a year as part of the city’s mandatory fire prevention code.

City fire officials say that more than 90% of the buildings, which are defined as high-rises if they exceed 75 feet in height, comply with local and state requirements. The requirements include performing drills, designating employees as fire wardens and maintaining fire evacuation plans.

“Overall, the cooperation level is excellent,” Los Angeles Fire Marshal Craig G. Drummond said.

The First Interstate Bank building was among those with exemplary drill records, Mistrik said. Its most recent fire drill was in April.

“I’ve done fire training in that building,” Mistrik said. “They’ve cooperated with our program.”

Local fire officials and private fire prevention specialists suggest, however, that while most high rises follow a regular schedule of drills, building managers often have difficulty persuading tenants and workers to participate. The result, officials say, is that in many high rises, the tenants who know about fire safety tend to be those who participate in drills.

“What good is it to have fire drills if only half the people in your building show up?” asked Nancy Karl of F-11 Productions, a Long Beach company that has developed fire training programs for more than 40 Los Angeles office buildings.

Mistrik said that when he shows up at high rises to inspect during fire drills, he often has to flash his inspector’s badge to persuade lingering office tenants to participate.

“It’s a shame more people don’t take these drills seriously,” he said.

Failure to comply with city fire prevention laws can lead to a $1,000 fine and six months in jail for those convicted. For violations of state codes, the maximum fine is $10,000. Mistrik said the city rarely takes such cases to court because most tenants eventually comply.

“When we tell them that they could face liability if there was a fire and a victim sued, they change their tune,” he said.

Last year, the city prosecuted the tenant of one Century City skyscraper after he refused to participate in a fire drill and flung his driver’s license at Mistrik when told he could be cited. The man received a $300 fine, was placed on six months’ probation and lost his office lease.

Building managers trying to overhaul their fire safety programs often contact Mistrik to learn how to conduct drills and take other precautions. The pressure to comply with the codes has led the owners of some buildings to hire private fire safety consultants, such as F-11 Productions. Fire officials said there are at least 10 firms in Southern California that cater to fire prevention needs.

Besides preparing proper drills, the fire specialist companies often set up evacuation procedures, draft manuals for building tenants and help offices designate fire wardens among their staffs.

“Even if you get someone to come to a fire drill, you’re only beginning to make progress,” F-11’s Karl said. “The instruction has to be ongoing. There’s so much turnover in some offices, you need to hold drills several times a year.”

The 35-story Westin Bonaventure Hotel has often been cited by city fire authorities as a prime example of a fire-ready building.

Besides having been built with a massive sprinkler system, the building conducts fire drills three times a month among security personnel and continually trains its 1,200 employees in fire prevention and safety, said Gary Theard, the building’s assistant director of security.