Spread the Sprinklers

The state of California and local governments must install sprinkler systems in dozens of high-rise offices and county hospitals to provide better fire protection. In doing so they face enormous costs that seem to escalate as they try to get their own houses in order while imposing sprinkler retrofitting requirements on businesses. The Los Angeles City Council has at least started the process by proposing a $30-million bond issue to help meet its costs.

The council wisely authorized $5 million in start-up work so that the city would be ready to go should the bond issue pass. It would be better if that measure could go onto the ballot this November rather than next April--before the concern that inevitably follows a major fire fades away. But it will be even better for the city to have the firmest cost estimates so that voters will know exactly what they’re paying for.

The city is farther along in addressing the question than either Los Angeles County or the state. And the county and the state may face larger problems. Los Angeles County has 27 high-rise offices and hospital buildings that it owns and operates that are without sprinklers. We have suggested that the places to start are the main hospital buildings at Martin Luther King Jr. General Hospital, Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center and Harbor-UCLA Medical Center. One county official estimated that if workers must install the sprinklers in off hours while the 27 buildings are still being used, the work of retrofitting could cost upwards of $70 million. Installing sprinklers in existing buildings often dislodges asbestos, which must then be removed at even greater cost.

It now appears that the state also has a massive problem. The Department of General Services operates 46 buildings, none of which comply totally with today’s codes. Some have sprinkler systems in entry ways and other public areas, trash-storage areas and computer rooms. But many areas remain unprotected by sprinklers. A state official estimates that it could cost $250 per sprinkler head to retrofit the unprotected areas of these buildings once the pipes, pumps and other necessary gear are installed. And the state could need at least 150,000 sprinkler heads, so the cost could be $38 million.

The state fire marshal’s office reports that there are even more state buildings and that only three are covered completely by sprinklers. Given the lack of concrete information on just how many state-owned or -operated high-rise buildings are at risk, the first thing that the Legislature should do is ask for a complete survey. Then it will better know what it is dealing with as it considers a bill by state Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) to require that all high-rise buildings in the state have sprinkler systems.

State law now requires sprinklers in all new high-rise buildings. But those constructed before the law was passed in 1974 were exempted, as were all local government and school district buildings. Torres’ bill, SB 2896, would allow no exemptions. We agree with that approach, and we believe that the state, like Los Angeles city and county governments, should start thinking seriously about how it will finance this vitally needed protection.