Affordable Sprinklers

Sprinkler systems can help save lives. Sprinklers can also be expensive, especially when building owners must remove hazardous asbestos in order to install them. The California Legislature and the Los Angeles City Council are searching for ways to provide fire protection for people who live in high-rise buildings without pricing them out of their apartments. Officials must demonstrate sensitivity for the economic problems of the poor and the elderly while writing the toughest possible safety requirements.

Last year the City Council required sprinkler retrofitting for older high-rise office buildings after the disastrous fire at the First Interstate Tower. Last week a council committee heard a proposal that sprinklers be required in high-rise residential buildings constructed before today’s tougher building codes were written.

To conceal pipes for sprinkler systems, parts of ceilings must be removed. That often leads to uncovering and removing asbestos, which was used for insulation and even fire protection before its threat to health was fully understood. Asbestos removal can cost $25,000 and up even for modest condominium units. People on fixed incomes in some older buildings say that they couldn’t afford the work and might have to move out, risking a loss on their condominium investments.

The argument persuaded members of the City Council committee that any ordinance should allow condominium projects that are 70% owner-occupied and that meet other fire-safety requirements to apply for exemption from this ordinance on a year-to-year basis. Legislation introduced in Sacramento this week by state Sen. Art Torres (D-Los Angeles) contains a similar provision. These exemptions, if they are are not abused, seem reasonable.

Sprinklers still would be required for about 100 older high-rise apartment buildings, many of which house people on low or fixed incomes. The proposed city ordinance may allow the installation of sprinkler systems that are less expensive than the norm because the pipes and sprinkler heads are exposed rather than covered by the ceiling. For small apartments, the use of this kind of system could mean rent increases held in the neighborhood of $15 to $30 a month.

However, the use of the less expensive sprinkler systems--which Los Angeles fire officials say have been successful in older apartment buildings where they have already been installed--might not meet the minimum standards that Torres is proposing. Los Angeles officials must work with Torres to iron out this critical difference.

Torres now has a tougher proposal on the table than the one that he was backing last year. That’s good, but his minimum standards may require adjusting to allow for proven but less expensive systems at the discretion of local fire and housing officials. Perhaps the state should also consider the less costly systems for its own high-rise buildings, which would be exempt under the proposal because there isn’t money to pay for sprinklers.

In shaping legislation, however, the point that must be kept in mind as one complicating factor follows another is that the goal is to get effective sprinkler systems in as many high-rise buildings as possible. That may mean bending a bit this way and that in order to accommodate to economic concerns, but that will be secondary to the goal of protecting lives and property.