Lessons of Chicago High-Rise Fire Cited

In a report released Wednesday, the commission investigating October’s deadly high-rise blaze criticized the Chicago Fire Department’s methods and said sweeping changes were needed to avert similar tragedies in the future.

Among other failings, the 94-page report said, the department sent frantic Cook County Administration Building employees to the wrong location, fought the fire from the wrong stairwell and failed to use an available public address system to communicate with potential victims. The commission -- made up of retired judges -- said communications were so poor that 911 calls from the victims could not get through.

Six people who were trapped in a stairwell with self-locking doors died of smoke inhalation; dozens of other people were injured. Police still are investigating the cause of the fire, which started in a storage area on the 12th floor.

The report made 20 recommendations, including retrofitting all high-rises with sprinkler systems -- at an estimated cost of hundreds of millions of dollars. When the 35-story administration building was built in 1964, city law did not mandate sprinklers, and a system was installed on only the first two floors.

The Fire Department, the report said, must work more efficiently with the city’s Office of Emergency Management to let firefighters on the scene get up-to-date information and to find better ways for crews to communicate in high-rise fires.

It also recommended the creation of a physical fitness training program, and said the department should increase the capacity of its air tanks, conduct top-to-bottom searches of high-rise stairwells while fires are raging, and take responsibility for directing building occupants to safe stairwells during evacuations.

“These all are very, very important things that need to happen,” said Craig Antas, chief counsel for the commission. “Yes, they’re suggestions. But without them, we could have another situation five years from now just like this.”

Fire Department officials, who got a copy of the study Wednesday morning, said they had assembled a team of outside experts to help review the report.

“While we may not ultimately agree with every conclusion and every recommendation that was reached, I am sure -- on the whole -- the document will provide positive input,” Chicago Fire Commissioner Cortez Trotter said at a news conference. “Until we in fact analyze this report, we can only have minimal comment.”

One suggested change -- an overhaul of the department’s promotion policy -- has city officials worried. The department has been accused by minority and white firefighters and officials of being discriminatory.