Chicago By ED McMANUS

High risk high rises

RUSSELL McKee and Richard Watson, in town from Florida on business, heard fire engine sirens on the morning of May 23 and went to the window of their 22nd floor Conrad Hilton Hotel to see what all the commotion was. But they decided it wasn't anything to worry about.

Five minutes later, they heard yelling in the hallway but thought it was just somebody having an argument.

Finally, they began to smell smoke. That was the first they knew there was a fire on the floor — a fire that eventually took the lives of four persons.

They were not alerted by a smoke alarm because the Hilton has none. It doesn't have to. Nor does the third largest hotel in the world have a sprinkler system. The building was built in 1927, long before such things were required. There is a manual alarm box on the 22nd floor but it just sends a silent alarm to the front desk, whose personnel then must telephone each room.

Chicago has a set of fire safety regulations for high-rise buildings, but they apply only to buildings built since 1975. Older buildings are not required to have any fire detection systems, not even manual pull alarms. The code for those buildings deals chiefly with construction materials, wall finishings, fire resistant partitions, enclosed stairways and fire prevention requirements for electrical and heating systems. Chicago does not compare well to many other cities in its fire safety requirements. New York and Los Angeles, for example, both require all high-rise hotels and residences to have centralized smoke detector systems.

Chicago Fire Commissisoner William Blair called for an ordinance in February 1981 to make smoke detectors mandatory in high rises, and last August he submitted a detailed proposal to Mayor Jane Byrne to require detectors in all dwellings, including single-family homes. In January, the mayor announced that an ordinance requiring the alarms was being prepared. But following the Hilton fire, a mayoral spokesman said the matter still is being studied by the corporation counsel's office. It has never been sent to the City Council.

Here is a rundown of the state of high-rise fire safety in Chicago:

• High-rise hotels and offices built before 1975 are not required to have any fire detection systems — smoke or heat detectors, or even manual alarms — and many buildings do not have them. New high rises must have centralized smoke detector systems if they are built according to the "compart-mentalization" plan designed to isolate smoke and flames in a single section of a building. The detectors do not set off an alarm on the floor, however; they trigger an alarm for building personnel, usually on the first floor.

In New York, all high rises must have smoke detector systems which set off an alarm on the floor of the fire and the floor above, as well as on the first floor.

• High-rise hotels and offices built before 1975 are not required to have sprinkler systems and most don't. New buildings which are not compartmentalized must have sprinklers. One pre-1975 building, Sears Tower (built in 1974), is fully equipped with sprinklers even though the law doesn't require it.

• In many office high rises, both old and new, there is no way to warn tenants that there is a fire in the building. There are no ringing alarm systems, no public address systems, no universal phone systems. The code doesn't require them. Some buildings, including the Hilton, the Palmer House and the Marriott, have general alarms which may be rung only on the orders of the fire department. (The Hilton's alarm was not rung May 23).

New York requires all high rises to have alarms that ring on the floor of the fire and the floor above.

• For security reasons, stairwell doors are kept locked on the inside in many high rises. Once you get into the stairwell, you can't get out until you reach the ground floor. The only way to unlock the doors in pre-1975 buildings is to go to each one with a key. New buildings must have a central device for unlocking the doors all at once.

• In many high rises, all the stairwells exit into the interior of the first floor. If there is a fire on the first floor, you're out of luck. The model fire code published by the National Fire Protection Association in 1976 says only half of those occupying a high rise should be allowed to exit to the interior on the ground floor, and then only if that floor has a sprinkler system.

• New buildings must have intercom phone systems at every fifth floor in the stairwells; ventilation system capable of sensing smoke and switching to a fire mode automatically — sending the smoke outdoors; and a control box near the elevator bank so firemen can bring elevators down. Again, none of these are required in older buildings, but if new elevators are installed in pre-1975 buildings, they must be fitted with a recall box.

In the aftermath of the Hilton fire, city officials declined to say why a new code has not been drafted yet. Cynics suggested it might relate to the fact that many building owners are big contributors to the mayor's reelection campaign fund. Meanwhile, the four victims were buried and Russell McKee and Richard Watson were treated at Mercy Hospital for lacerations suffered when they broke the window in their room, and they returned to Florida. It will be a long time before they forget the sound of those sirens.

42 | August 1982 | Illinois Issues