Fire Sprinkler Systems

The costly fire at the 62-story First Interstate Bank building in Los Angeles had firefighters in Orange County taking inventory, and what they came up with should move local elected officials into speedy action.

A partial list of tall buildings that were constructed before a 1974 state building code change made sprinkler systems mandatory in high-rise structures included eight hotels, a 14-story retirement tower and several office buildings. The residential retirement building is at Leisure World in Laguna Hills and the hotels in Anaheim include two of three 11-story towers at the Disneyland Hotel and the 14-story Inn at the Park hotel. The 10-story Bank of America building in Anaheim and the Home Savings office building in El Toro are also without the protection that automatic fire sprinkler systems provide.

Unfortunately, when monetary considerations and public safety clash, too often safety loses out. Orange County saw that happen last November when the issue of installing sprinklers in multiple-family units, such as apartments, came before the county Board of Supervisors.

On one side was the county’s director of fire services with all kinds of documentation on how sprinklers save lives, property and firefighting costs. On the other side was the Building Industry Assn., arguing against installation costs. The supervisors voted to delay any action on the issue for two years,.

That same penny-wise-and-pound-foolish mistake must not be made again in providing protection for residents, workers and guests in older high-rise buildings in Orange County.

If there is a lesson in the ashes of the floors burned out in the First Interstate building, it is the grim reminder of the urgent need to retrofit the pre-1974 high-rise buildings that were constructed without sprinklers. Ironically, a sprinkler system was in the process of being installed in the bank building when the fire broke out. The estimated cost of the system is $3.5 million. The estimated fire damage is in the tens of millions, and one person was killed and 40 others injured.

It should not take fire disasters to move public officials to enact safety laws that they know will save lives and property.

After a disastrous apartment fire that killed 24 people in 1982, the Los Angeles City Council made sprinklers mandatory in all apartment buildings.

Now, in the aftermath of the First Interstate fire, the council is considering an ordinance that will require all high-rises, regardless of when they were built, to have sprinklers. Orange County officials must not wait for a disaster of their own.

The supervisors and city councils cannot put a firefighter on every floor of every high-rise in the county. But they can do the next best thing, and be sure that sprinkler systems are there to douse small fires before they become infernos.