AST Digital Magazine July 2017 Digital-July | Page 16

Volume 14
“Whether it’s a large property loss fire where no
one died, but 400 people are out of their homes,
a high-rise fire with one death or six deaths, a
mansion fire with three generations lost or a doz-
en fatalities a day in single-family dwellings, we
have a duty to act against “The Fire.”
“Maybe we will get someone to put all “The Fire”
stories together and reenergize us all to take ac-
tion.”
“With our aging population and the fact that the
Millennials are more in numbers than the Baby
Boomers, will we understand our duty? We
should try to make sure “The Fire” is only in his-
tory.”
On May 15, 2017 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania was
the site of another fatal high-rise fire, when a
seven-alarm blaze began on the sixth floor of an
unsprinklered 18-story apartment building.
A 75-year old woman lost her life, 3 firefighters
and several residents were injured. Fire officials
had called for sprinklers to be installed in the
building nearly two decades ago, in 1999, after a
fire on the 13th floor.
(One person is dead and several others were injured in a
seven-alarm fire inside the Midtown Towers in Downtown
Pittsburgh. Courtesy of CBS Pittsburgh and YouTube. Post-
ed May 15, 2017)
At that time, acting fire chief Peter Mi-
cheli called it a “classic example” of why
sprinklers are needed in high rises.
“Sprinklers have been around for about 100
July 2017 Edition
years now — a little more. And in that 100-year
time, there has never been a fatality as a result of
fire in a building with a working sprinkler system,”
current Pittsburgh fire Chief Darryl E. Jones said.
He advocated tougher sprinkler requirements
but, unfortunately, he stated that he doesn’t
“have any control over that.”
Like many places across the U.S., Pittsburgh
is an old city. The high rise that caught fire was
over 100 years old. The code requirement for
sprinklers in high-rise structures did not become
universal in the United States until the 1990s.
It is imperative that states adopt code changes
that would call for retrofitting of all high-rises built
without fire sprinklers, especially those people
live in.
Pushback to requiring retrofit is rampant from
some housing associations across the coun-
try, all the more reason to educate and involve
all stakeholders of the life- and property-saving
benefits of fire sprinkler systems.
Jim Eichenlaub, executive director of the Builders Associa-
tion and Apartment Association of Metropolitan Pittsburgh
In the wake of the Pittsburgh fire, Jim Eichen-
laub, executive director of the Builders Associa-
tion and Apartment Association of Metropolitan
Pittsburgh, is quoted as saying, “There are a lot
of other public policy and issues that need to be
considered before moving forward with that type
of action.”
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