Blaze in high-rise kills 1, injures 40

May 4, 1988: A nighttime fire blazed through five floors of the 62-story First Interstate Bank Building, leaving one person dead and 40 others injured. Nearly 300 firefighters -- about 40% of the city’s force -- fought the blaze, which gutted four floors. “Smoke billowed hundreds of feet above the 859-foot building, obscuring the view from helicopters that braved fire-generated winds to pluck eight persons to safety from the roof and drop firefighters and equipment there to combat the fire from above,” The Times reported.

The fire prompted the city to require older commercial buildings over 75 feet tall to retrofit with sprinklers and install fire sensors every few floors and air-pressurization systems to fan smoke out of stairwells. “Ironically, a 40-member crew was in the process of installing sprinklers when the fire broke out,” The Times reported the day after the blaze. “Although the system was 90% completed, none of the sprinklers was working yet.”