Apartment building safety has improved steadily over the years, but those improvements–particularly regarding fires–have been won at the cost of many lost lives. "If you look at the fire code,, you can see [a number of] things that were put in place after major disasters, when people were more accepting of changes," says Dan Jones, the fire chief in Chapel Hill, N.C. He even has a name for such disasters: "teachable moments."
"Any time you have a structure fire where there's significant injury, property damage, or loss of life, the news media focus on the issue, and fire marshals have the attention of the public and elected officials," says Jones. A decade ago, after a fraternity fire killed five students at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, he seized the teachable moment to get a local law passed requiring that all college residences be retrofitted with sprinkler systems.
Nearly 95,000 fires broke out in U.S. apartments in 2004, according to the NFPA. As a result, 510 citizens died and another 3,200 were injured that year alone.
Credit: George Hall/CORBIS
Such post-tragedy public attention often has resulted in stricter codes and better-trained code officials. They are more aggressive, better equipped to educate property managers, and will more readily explain why things are important or required, according to Jones. But stricter codes and better-trained officials can't cover all the bases, and owners of apartment buildings need to take action to protect residents and property.
Use fire detectors and sprinkler systems that work.
The two most familiar, and most effective, ways to prevent fires at apartment and condo buildings are smoke detectors and sprinkler systems. According to the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), the chance of a death by fire is halved in apartments with smoke detectors.
But there's a catch: Those numbers assume that the smoke detectors are hard-wired into the electrical system. "Multifamily has been a problem class over the years," says Steve Bushnell, product manager for commercial real estate at Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. "We've seen problems over and over again with battery-operated smoke detectors and have paid several losses because of battery-operated smoke detectors with no batteries. We want to see hard-wired units, and we may require a connection to a central station alarm."
The statistical case for including sprinkler systems in a property is just as impressive. The NFPA credits them with a 50 percent to 75 percent reduction in fire death rates and perhaps as high as a 60 percent reduction in property loss rates. "For high-rise buildings, sprinklers are associated with a reduction of at least 88 percent in the rate of deaths per 1,000 fires and at least 44 percent in the average dollar-loss per fire," says Gary Keith, NFPA vice president of building and life safety in Quincy, Mass. The nonprofit works to advocate fire prevention and has more than 79,000 members.
Har-Bro, located in the Western U.S., specializes in rebuilding properties such as this one after a disaster.
Credit: Har-Bro Emergency Svc.
As a result, sprinkler systems are required in all new high-rise buildings and in new low-rise buildings in a growing number of cities and states. (Some states adopt statewide regulations; others leave more flexibility to cities and towns.) For many multifamily owners, a more pressing and controversial question is whether they must retrofit existing buildings with sprinklers. Nationwide, most efforts to mandate retrofits have focused on high-rise buildings, but sprinkler advocates typically face an uphill battle, especially when it comes to residential properties. Chicago, for example, passed a high-rise retrofit law at the end of 2004, after a 2003 high-rise fire resulted in six deaths. But owners have 15 years to fully comply with the law, and it requires only that residential high-rises be evaluated by a professional engineer rather than the fire department.
Credit: Har-Bro Emergency Svc.
Even where residential sprinkler retrofit laws have passed, there have usually been some exceptions. For instance, Louisville, Ky., exempted owner-occupied residential co-ops. Connecticut required sprinkler retrofits only in housing for the elderly, but, according to Ken Isman, vice president of engineering at the National Fire Sprinkler Association in Patterson, N.Y., "owners would claim legally that they were not housing for elderly, even if most of the people in their building were over 65."
The reason for the opposition is, of course, the high cost of a sprinkler retrofit. (See "Critical Questions," p. 65.) If apartment buildings are going to be voluntarily retrofitted with sprinklers, some sort of incentive for owners will probably be required to get the job done. So the National Fire Sprinkler Association is supporting a bill in Congress called the Fire Sprinkler Incentive Act. If passed, the bill would change the tax code so that owners of any commercial or apartment building–high-rise or low-rise–could depreciate the cost of a sprinkler system over five years, instead of the 30-plus years now required. As of June 2006, both the House and Senate versions of the bill had been buried in committee for more than a year. Isman says that while it's difficult to amend the tax code, he is cautiously optimistic.
Ensure your property's firestopping is effective.
Regardless of whether a property has a sprinkler system, though, one thing every owner should pay attention to is the fire resistance of the building itself.
If a property is new construction, owners have the odds in their favor: New apartment buildings with fire-resistant construction have about 30 percent lower dollar-loss per fire, according to the NFPA. Part of this can be credited to fire-rated building materials. But Keith believes that much of the gain is probably is due to the firewalls that compartmentalize new buildings and thus keep fires confined to smaller areas.
However, a firewall can't stop a blaze if it has even a single hole. That's where firestopping comes in. Firestopping means patching a firewall anywhere that it has been breached, whether that breach consists of a hole for wiring or ducts or a gap where the wall meets the ceiling. Firestopping plays a crucial role in stopping the spread of fire and minimizing the loss of life. Ideally, it ensures that the firewalls compartmentalize a building and thus confine the fire to one area long enough for the fire department to arrive and extinguish the flames before they can spread.
If you want your firestopping system to be effective, you have to do more than just plug holes, explains John Sinisi, chairman of Firestop Inspector in Manasquan, N.J., a company that provides third-party inspection of installed firestops and fire barriers. "A firestop system is a recipe system. It consists of specific materials applied to a specified level of depth, depending on the situation."
These "recipes" are detailed. For example, a system for patching a hole where a cable penetrates a piece of drywall might include a backing material, a caulk, and a collar. Firestopping systems are tested and certified by Underwriters Laboratories, which Sinisi says lists more than 5,000 systems, covering every type of construction.
Credit: Disaster Kleenup International
Even if a building is using the right systems, someone needs to confirm that they are installed correctly. Building codes require that firestopping be inspected, but often they're somewhat ambiguous on the details of the inspection process.
Once the job is done, it must be maintained over the life of the property. Even a wall that has been carefully firestopped and inspected during construction can lose its effectiveness when electricians, plumbers, or HVAC installers punch holes in it later for repairs or upgrades or by accident. Ongoing inspections will ensure that firewalls get re-sealed so they can do their job.
Pay attention to tougher fire safety rules.
All the knowledge gained through those "teachable moments" of preventable fire losses has resulted in more regulations for multifamily owners and managers and a more complex environment for code enforcement. That, in turn, has led to better training for building officials. "Twenty years ago, your average building official may have had little or no professional training other than experience in the trades," says Dan Meachan, vice president of Niles Bolton Associates, an architecture and design firm in Atlanta. "But in most jurisdictions over the last 20 years, there has been a dramatic difference in the training and professionalism of building officials. They're much more sophisticated now."
One reason code officials have become more sophisticated is that the codes have, too, according to Meachan. For instance, the formulas that the code specifies for figuring the area covered by a sprinkler system have become more complex. Because of this, most owners of buildings that are four stories or above now use specialized fire-prevention consultants to help design their sprinkler systems.
But despite this better oversight, the ultimate responsibility for making an apartment building safer falls on the property owners and managers. Fire officials advise apartment firms to arrange for regular maintenance of equipment systems, schedule (and execute) exit drills regularly, and organize volunteer fire safety wardens. The point is that owners that invest in making fire safety important are going to reap the dividends–and protect lives and property.
–Charles Wardell is a freelance writer in Vineyard Haven, Mass. Additional reporting by Diane Kittower.
Safety Strategies
Here are 10 ways to avert a fire-related tragedy at your property.
1. Call in the pros. "Most municipal fire departments will provide this service free of charge," according to Dan Jones, a fire chief in Chapel Hill, N.C. A fire official will walk the property with the owner and point out things that the owner could do to improve safety, reduce risk, and reduce the threat of fire. (If you have any code violations, the fire official will likely require that they be corrected.)
2. Do a self-survey. Your insurance company might be able to help. "Our loss control department offers a self-inspection checklist that deals with every kind of loss," says Steve Bushnell, product manager for commercial real estate at Fireman's Fund Insurance Co. "The owner can walk the property every six months and do an assessment. [Then owners] can do a pretty good job of risk-managing their own account."
3. Have an HVAC contractor check the heating system at the beginning of the heating season. "If systems aren't maintained, even the structurally best building will have problems," says Jones.
4. Have a regular schedule for inspecting and cleaning chimneys. The schedule will vary, depending on chimney use. With high use, it should be done annually; once every two years is a minimum for all chimneys.
5. Make sure exits are clear. Exits should be spot-checked by maintenance staff during site inspections. Since tenants may obstruct the exits at any time, they should be checked frequently.
6. Confirm that sprinkler and alarm systems work. Sprinkler systems should be inspected annually by the sprinkler system installer. Some fire departments also offer this service. The alarm systems can be checked by a maintenance person. Most alarm companies spell out the proper inspection procedure.
7. Have an inspection program in place to ensure the integrity of building firestopping systems. An annual or biannual walk-through survey by maintenance staff and a regular firestop maintenance program will help maintain your property's fire resistance. "If you're in a building that's over 20 years old and you have not updated the electrical system, you should have a contractor check it out," says Bushnell. "We've seen several losses caused by older wiring where the insulation peels back or sometimes rodents gnaw away at the insulation. It's the cause of some of the biggest losses we have."
8. Don't allow grilling on residents' balconies. Experts say this is a common, but preventable, cause of fire, and a problem regardless of whether the grill is gas or charcoal.
9. Educate residents about fire safety. Between their careless cooking, scented candles, overloaded power strips, dropped cigarettes, and other mishaps, residents qualify as your number one source of fire hazards. "You should frequently mention fire safety issues in tenant newsletters," advises Jones. "These issues include information on cooking safety and reminders to check batteries in smoke detectors."
10. Create an evacuation plan and practice it. It's the responsibility of property owners and managers to help people understand how to evacuate their units in case of a fire. Owners should also designate a meeting place for residents and keep a list of those who are elderly or disabled, so that on-site staff or others can alert the fire department about residents who might be trapped in their apartments.
Critical Questions
Are you considering retrofitting your property with sprinklers? Here's what you need to ask.
Installing a sprinkler system in an existing building isn't cheap. Most retrofits cost $1.50 to $5.75 per square foot of protected area, according to Doug Ellsworth, a design/build mechanical engineer at Burt Hill Architecture in Pittsburgh. And brace yourself if you're dealing with a boutique-size property: Square-foot costs tend to be higher in smaller buildings, which don't benefit from the economies of scale that installations in larger structures get. He recommends getting answers to the following questions to gauge the scope of your sprinkler retrofit and estimate your costs.
Does the water service have enough size, capacity, and pressure to handle sprinklers? If not, expect to pay utility tap-in fees. Grounds and structures may also have to be torn up and patched.
Does the code require a standpipe? If a building exceeds certain height and area limits, it may need a standpipe, which is where the fire department plugs in its hoses. Ellsworth says to expect costs of roughly $5,000 per floor per standpipe required. Where there are standpipes, there is also usually a fire pump, which may cost upwards of $40,000, plus installation and connection. Pumps take up space, which is often at a premium in an existing building.
How will the installation affect the building and its occupants? You may need to hide sprinkler pipes in finished areas. You will have to determine whether it's less expensive to install the piping above the existing hallway ceiling or to install a false ceiling. If you're bringing in new water services, you will need additional valves. You might have to relocate other services. Keep in mind that the installation process may mean temporarily dislocating tenants. A good engineer or architect should be able to tell you the most cost-effective place to bring a sprinkler system into a building as well as which phases of installation will affect which units.
Protective Pair
These two products may reduce the risk of fires. [Top photo: Courtesy Disaster Kleenup International]
Wood Treatment: Fire-retardant treated lumber is so expensive that most builders can only justify the cost in wildfire areas. A less costly alternative is offered by No-Burn, a fire prevention materials company located in Wadsworth, Ohio. It offers spray-on treatments for wood and drywall that the company says will greatly reduce the rate at which the materials burn. Company-certified dealers apply the wood treatment to the frame of a building after the rough framing is done but before the utilities are roughed in. Expect to pay roughly $1.25 per square foot of floor area for framing and $2.25 to $2.50 per square foot for drywall. (No-Burn says it has 150 dealers across the country.) The firm also makes treatments for furnishings and carpet. For more information, call 800-989-8577 or visit www.noburn.com.
Element Guardian: An unattended electric stove is a fire waiting to happen in an apartment building. The Safe-T element is designed to reduce that risk. It consists of an electronically controlled cast-iron plate that's installed on top of a traditional electric burner. The element works like a thermostat, with a control board inside the stove continuously monitoring the temperature of the element. When the plate reaches a predetermined cut-off temperature, the sensor sends a signal to the control board, which shuts off power to the stovetop. (It will turn back on once the temperature falls below a specified point.) For more information, call 800-433-6026 or visit www.pioneeringtech.com.