Report of High-Rise Blaze Delayed, Fire Officials Say

Seven minutes elapsed between the time an alarm first signaled a fire in the First Interstate Bank tower and when firefighters received a report on the 911 emergency line because building security personnel turned off what they thought were false alarms, officials said Tuesday.

Los Angeles Fire Department officials said security personnel at the building received three sets of fire signals and turned them off twice in technical violation of the city’s Fire Code. They still did not report the alarms to the Fire Department.

After receiving the third series of alarms, security supervisors sent maintenance worker Alexander Handy to the 12th floor to investigate. He was burned to death when the elevator became stuck with the doors open on the 12th floor.

Representatives of Los Angeles-based Pedus Security Services Inc. disputed the Fire Department’s version of the incident, saying a security officer telephoned firefighters within one minute of the first alarm.

The May 4 blaze was one of the worst high-rise fires in the city’s history. Flames gutted four stories of the 62-story tower, and smoke and water damaged virtually all other floors.

In response to the fire, the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday ordered the drafting of an ordinance requiring all city-owned and privately owned buildings taller than 75 feet to be retrofitted with sprinkler systems.

Councilman Nate Holden’s proposal was adopted by a 10-1 vote after several of his colleagues rose to say that public safety should take priority over the heavy expense of installing sprinkler systems that would be borne by property owners.

Under state law and a city ordinance, automatic sprinkler systems have been required only in buildings at least 75 feet high that were constructed after July, 1974. Downtown opposition had killed previous efforts to extend the requirement to high-rises built before that period.

Fire Chief Donald O. Manning and other fire experts said last week’s fire would have been confined to a small area if the building had been equipped with a sprinkler system. First Interstate had been in the process of installing such a system when the fire broke out.

Manning generally had high praise for that effort by First Interstate.

Bank Officials Warned

But he added that bank officials had been warned earlier this year that their emergency procedures were deficient. He said they did not identify a clear point at which firefighters should be called. Those procedures were apparently not updated, he said.

The chief acknowledged that it is common practice among office tower security workers to check alarms before calling in a possible a fire. But he sternly warned that the practice is wrong.

“We suggest calling right away,” Manning said at a press conference.

During the critical minutes following the first alarm at 10:30 p.m., smoke and flames were able to rapidly spread across the 12th floor, Manning said.

Just two minutes after the first alarm indicated flames near a bank of computers on the southeast corner of the floor, three more alarms sounded as the blaze swept past the elevator bank, Manning said.

Two minutes after that, four more alarms were activated--including three that security had reset, Manning said.

With five minutes gone, security officers radioed for Handy to investigate.

Just one minute later at 10:36, multiple alarms sounded on floors 13 through 30 as smoke climbed through the tower--possibly pumped by the moving elevator, Manning said.

The first three calls to report the fire came into the 911 emergency line at 10:37, but all were from occupants of neighboring buildings, Manning said.

Firefighters responded to the scene 3 1/2 minutes later, he said, but by the time they arrived, flames had already spread throughout the 12th floor and were lapping out the windows and toward the 13th floor.

It was not clear, Manning said, when building officials finally reported the fire.

Security Firm’s Version

Pedus officials said that based on their own printouts from the building’s Honeywell 2000 security computer they believe that the first two alarms sounded less than half a minute apart. Almost immediately after the second alarm sounded, the guard at the control panel telephoned for help, said Jim Clauson, vice president of operations for the security firm.

“Thirty-five seconds (elapsed) from the time he got the second alarm until he contacted the Fire Department,” Clauson said. “The whole thing took less than a minute.”

Clauson defended the firm’s role in the incident, saying guards followed exactly the procedures outlined by the Fire Department and by building managers. According to those procedures, guards respond to a first alarm by conducting their own investigation of the cause.

If trouble is found or if other alarms ring, fire officials are notified.

“Frequently, smoke alarms go off on various floors because people smoke cigarettes or sometimes the cafeteria burns food,” he said. “They go off for any number of reasons, mostly from cigarette smoke.”

Such false alarms occur at least once a week, he estimated.

However, the guard on duty--Donald Eliason, 24--reported the second alarm to firefighters and immediately was inundated with additional alarms from other floors. He probably was on the phone to the Fire Department when those other alarms registered, Clauson said.

Security officials said their own printouts may be at odds with Fire Department records because the clocks in the Honeywell computer were out of sync with the department’s clocks.

No Citation Issued

Despite the tragedy, Manning said First Interstate officials broke no fire codes or regulations--though a spokesman later clarified that statement saying technical violations did occur but were not serious enough to warrant a citation.

Manning said First Interstate was a “model” for other high-rise management companies because it was installing a sprinkler system, although not required to do so. The sprinkler system was 90% complete but inoperable at the time of the fire.

A timely report of the fire could have been critical, Manning said.

“We’d like to think we would have made a difference with five or 10 minutes lead time,” Manning said.

Fire officials have thus far not been able to determine what caused the blaze because the 2,000-degree temperatures destroyed critical evidence. Arson has been all but ruled out.

Manning said the suspicion is that the fire was caused by an electrical malfunction in a bank of computers on the southeast corner of the 12th floor.

A fire of that nature could have easily been stopped, or at least slowed considerably, by a sprinkler system, Manning said.

Such arguments for mandatory installation of these systems have been made for years. But proposals for retrofitting existing buildings have been met with resistence from the high-rise owners.

Referring to past efforts that were killed, Holden said, “Whatever caused us not to do that before, let’s set that aside.”

Last week, Holden, a newcomer to the council, had scolded his more senior colleagues for not enacting a retrofitting ordinance earlier.

Councilman Marvin Braude said any delay in enacting a retrofitting ordinance would backfire.

“I want this council to send a message loudly and clearly that we want to move forward . . . that this council is serious and that an ordinance is going to be drafted,” Braude said. “I think the public perception of what our intent is and the direction we’re going is critically important.”

Task Force Report

It is also expected that the ordinance will incorporate recommendations made by a task force named by Mayor Tom Bradley two days after the fire. Deputy Fire Chief Craig Drummond said Tuesday that besides automatic sprinklers, the task force is expected to recommend the installation of a fireproof elevator vestibule.

Such vestibules, required in new high-rises, include fireproof doors on both sides of an elevator waiting area that would automatically close once a smoke alarm is activated. Drummond said the fire doors would permit anyone in a burning high-rise to use the elevators safely for at least an hour.

In a related action, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to ask Los Angeles city officials to require all high-rise buildings to install sprinkler systems.

The supervisors also ordered a study of all high-rise buildings under the county’s jurisdiction to determine whether to require similar sprinkler systems as a precaution against a disastrous fire.

Times staff writers David Ferrell and Victor Merina contributed to this story.