European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 28, 1981, Darmstadt, Hesse A crazy quilt pattern of codes 1980 t 8 15 22 29 fires a month in hotels and motels waiting for Rescue As flames engulfed Mem grand hotel at Las vegas last Puyt 14 continued from Page 13 location of the it is close to an Ideal set of Dorris said older hotels account for a majority of those in the popular Beach and he said they Lack such sophisticated Dade fire chief Edward Donaldson said people in a High Rise should always know where the exits Are and that elevators Are not fire he recommended As did others that High Rise dwellers feel the door if it is leave the door closed and wait for if the hallways and exits Are Clear of leave Donaldson went to Las vegas to learn from the Mem most of the people who perished in the Mem grand did so because they left their he other firefighters advised filling bathtubs with soaking towels and using them to Seal smoke out of rooms at doors and san Francisco fire chief Andrew Casper we Are starting a program of enforcement and have already sent to the City attorneys office information on 5 of the 10 High rises that Are not in compliance with the strict fire prevention code passed by the 1977 Casper in addition to sealing doors with wet Tow residents even before they look for a second Way out in an emergency every room should have a notification plaque telling guests where to go and what to Many modern hotel and High Rise building owners apparently resist installing modern safety devices because of increased Frank estimator for the architectural firm of Skidmore Owings and Merrill in san there is a wide variation in costs of fire prevention if you put in you Are probably talk ing about to per Square then there Are elevator controls that keep an elevator from stopping at a floor on which there is a you Are probably talking about somewhere in the neigh boyhood of a Square that of course is just a but its an educated Many states Are hesitant to require retrofitting older buildings with sophisticated but los Angeles fire chief Dick Olsen said California passed Laws at the state level about five years ago requiring retrofit of fire systems in existing in los we have 485 High rises for which the fire department is in the process of ordering major Revi they include enclosing Stair checking alarm the Means of and in some of the older High rises with Deaden a requirement that they be no longer than 20 feet without Stair shafts or sprinklers and communications in new those built since they have to be fully but older buildings dont have to have the the stars and stripes Olsen and other fire chiefs of major population centers have a Well orchestrated method of fighting High Rise As Many As 300 firefighters can answer a High Rise fire in los the first company to arrive goes to the floor on the next one takes Overall charge and sets up a lobby As other companies they take other response set up a staging area two floors below the fire for men and then we get into helicopter operations and it keeps continually expanding with the magnitude of the which has luxury hotels similar to the Mem sent two fire officials to study the Las vegas they said there Are similar conditions in Honolulu to those that led to the Mem especially in the Waikiki we dont want to frighten but it could happen said fire chief Boniface he said the conditions include Lack of adequate alarm and sprinkler stairwells that dont function properly and Lack of effective evacuation Aiu said he would like to see Early fire detection sys tems in All with the smoke and heat sensitive devices installed in every hotel room and linked to a Central City fire alarm he said it is important to have a sprinkler system on every even if it Means in Little where construction has begun on a 19story riverfront convention mayor Webster Hubbell weve gotten More Calls about that lately than anything City director Myra Jones we dont want to have happen to us what happened to them in Las head of the fire prevention said there Are 258 High Rise buildings Denver most of which do not have he said there is no retroactive plan to install Leiker said one thing firemen have to remember when an swering a Call to a High Rise is that some sealed windows must remain sealed in order for smoke evacuation sys tems to work in fire chief Paul Gagne asked for stricter fire safey measures at the 132room Newport Treadway inn after the Mem grand manager Klaus Ihde said he will comply by adding either smoke heat detectors or a new zone alarm is in the midst of a hotel building Western International and several smaller chains Are putting up new luxury towers this although the last major High Rise fire was in an old the Ozark the Blaze killed 21 elderly people in 1970 it led to a Complete upgrading of the City s fire despite Seattle fire marshal Bob who visited the Mem fire said the cites current stand Ards Are not Good enough to prevent a similar Carastro we dont have a building that big in but something like that could happen he said he will recommend improvements in the Seattle code and inspection there is a profound need to educate people who live and work in High Rise buildings to the procedures they should follow in the Case of errors were made in the evacuation procedures at Las vegas that contributed to the death he said guests at the Mem grand turned emergency stairwells into smoking chimneys when they propped open the exit doors in a futile attempt to draw fresh air into the upper floors of the Hansen said the 1979 Seattle code requires High Rise buildings to be equipped with giant fans to blow fresh air into stairwells and keep smoke out until occupants is he said such pressurized stairwells will not work if the doorways Are propped unlike most the Seattle code Doest re quire sprinklers on every it concentrates on a life safety where occupants can withstand a fire for four from what Ive seen in other id feel More comfortable staying in a hotel in said although some have resisted sprinklers on the grounds that they damage fire marshal Thomas who Calls sprinklers the Best High Rise fire has a ready reply its a ques Tion of having the carpets cleaned or carrying out the Ive never known anyone to drown from being because one of the guests at the Mem grand saved himself and others by using a cigarette lighter to find stairs in the dark Rhode Island fire marshal Earl Shannon suggests people pack a flashlight in their in the Alexandria fire chief Charles Rule had a somber fear it could happen Here anytime and weve been expecting it to we have the potential for Many miniature Mem grand what it comes Down to is said Arlington fire chief Thomas Hawkins who is uneasy about Arlington Complex of High Rise offices and apart ments known As Crystal you can Only require so much and then you can make some general suggestions to but youre talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars to make in in simultaneous fires in new jerseys new Brighton hotel Casino Only Days after the Mem sprinklers automatically put out suspicious flames on the seventh and fifth floors before the fire department the Flamingo just North of the Mem is said to have one of the Best state theart fire sys tems in the a product of the latest Tough Stan there Are smoke detectors and intercoms in each room a reminder that some Mem survivors said they Learned of the fire by watching television in the very building each room has a sprinkler system and automatic alarm despite this modern Flamingo general Man Ager Horst Dziura said the system is almost too a Cigar can set the system a High wind like we have today can blow dust through the window and set it we have so Many false alarms it comes to a Point where everybody gets too relaxed about but he said the six minor fires the hotel has had remained minor because of the each of them was extinguished right safeguards against disaster United press International flying fireman platform with a lift 16 people at once from a a National Survey of fire officials shows there is technology available now to construct High Rise buildings with sufficient safeguards to prevent disasters like the one that occurred at the Mem grand hotel in Las if such a building fire officials believe it would have the following safety devices v sprinkler system on each computerized control panel on the ground level to pinpoint a fire and even differentiate intensity and Speed the control panel and other backup Power systems hooked up to neighbouring Power systems that automatically trip on in emergencies to prevent dead lighting smoke and heat alarms in every room backed up by batteries that recharge themselves Public address system for management to advise guests of Best evacuation the nature of the fire and help maintain a alarms connected Rocity fire Safe areas or cores heavily shielded from fires windows that but not far enough to allow pan icky residents to although they could be shattered if v furnishings excluding plastics that create noxious and often fatal Only Federal Laws can now regulate use of such carpets and furnishings of fire resistant mater Hall ashtrays of the wet sump variety that drown cigars and no Deaden exit signs with Batter powered lights that come on As soon As electricity is Cut elevators equipped with heat sensing devices that prevent opening at those areas already too hot to allow Many elevators now automatically go to a burning floor and v Clear instructions in each room on what to do in a fire to occupants of that room on emergency compartments in each room that sound an alarm when opened and contain four hour oxygen Supply Nylon rope ladders already attached that reach the ground capable of holding up to 20 persons at a Kitchen areas and areas where fires frequently begin to be isolated and shielded from the main residential area of a helipad on roofs with ready Access for those forced to take this evacuation the expense of such systems is the payoff could be a time when hotel fire tragedies Are viewed As leftovers from another the stars and stripes Page 15
