Wednesday, July 21, 1999
Chief: Sprinklers would have saved disabled woman
Older buildings exempt from law
BY ANNE MICHAUD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
An automatic sprinkler system would have saved the life of a disabled woman killed in a fire on Friday, Cincinnati Fire Chief Robert Wright told City Council Tuesday.
His assertion led City Councilman Charles Winburn to call for sprinkler and remote alarm systems in all buildings that house more than about 30 percent elderly or disabled people.
Mr. Winburn said that such issues receive little attention because the tenants are poor.
“If it was our people — we come from good, middle-class homes — we would fight it,” he said.
Fires in old buildings have become a nationwide concern, Chief Wright said, noting that New York City recently strengthened its laws that require sprinkler systems. New buildings must include such systems, but older buildings have been exempt.
Nashville and Louisville are also phasing in sprinkler systems in old buildings.
Gloria Miles, a leader of residents who are concerned about conditions in public housing, said the death of Patricia Moon on Friday has people scared.
“A lot of residents are despondent because of this death,” Mrs. Miles told City Council's neighborhoods committee. “They are saying, "If this could happen to Mrs. Moon, this could happen to us.'”
Mrs. Moon, 61, was trapped in her bedroom by a fire that started when her daughter was frying fish, according to a fire department report. The daughter left the apartment to help a neighbor who had fallen in the hallway, and the food caught fire.
The daughter left the apartment door open, which allowed the smoke to spread and injure four others, the fire department said, adding that the smoke was drawn away from the fire alarm
inside the apartment.
Many residents were unaware that there was a fire because the smoke detectors in the 1920s building do not trigger an alarm system, the department's report said.
The four-story building, Kemper Lane Apartments in Walnut Hills, houses about 125 people.
Chief's suggestions
Chief Wright recommended fire sprinklers throughout the building, installation of an alarm system tied to smoke alarms, a public address system to alert residents to evacuate, addition of kitchen extinguishing systems and several other measures.
The building, owned by Winston Folkers, a former economic development director for Cincinnati, has had 18 fires in 10 years, 15 of which were caused by food unattended on the stove, according to the fire department.
One other fire has resulted in a death.
"Burden' for landlords
The measures Mr. Winburn suggested will be costly for landlords, several people said.
“Absolutely, it would be burdensome,” said Michael Delev, president of the Greater Cincinnati Building Owners and Managers Association.
He recommended a five- to 10-year phase-in of sprinkler systems. For example, he said, Louisville requires building owners to complete 20 percent a year.
Councilman James Tarbell said Mr. Winburn is “grandstanding and campaigning.”
“If you took all the elderly housing complexes tomorrow and mandated they be sprinkled, I guarantee there'd be a whole lot of people out on the street,” said Mr. Tarbell, who is on the neighborhoods committee but did not attend the meeting.
Councilwoman Minette Cooper said landlords may change the type of tenants they accept to remain under a 30 percent population of elderly or disabled, if that was the cut-off for investment in sprinkler and alarm systems.
“We have to be careful we're not handicapping the very people we're trying to help,” Mrs. Cooper said.
William Langevin, director of Cincinnati's Building and Inspection Department, said, “We could inadvertently create a dearth of senior housing, and that is my principal concern.”
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