A Burning Message for S.D.

After two fatal fires in high-rises in New York City, that city passed an ordinance requiring fire-containment devices such as sprinklers in all buildings taller than 100 feet. Massachusetts responded similarly after a costly high-rise fire in Boston.

After fire killed 24 people in a Los Angeles apartment building, that city required sprinklers in all apartment buildings. Now, in the wake of the First Interstate Bank Building fire, the Los Angeles City Council is working on an ordinance that would require retrofitting all high-rise buildings built before state law mandated sprinklers in 1974.

Why didn’t San Diego take action after the fire at the 15-story Cabrillo Square apartments killed three people and injured 40 in 1983?

The owner of Cabrillo Square did. Sprinklers were installed in 1984 at a cost of $400,000. At least four other high-rises in San Diego have been retrofitted with sprinklers in recent years, according to the Fire Department: the St. James Hotel, the Hotel San Diego, the Hilton Hotel and the Hyatt Islandia. Our congratulations to them.

If disaster is what it takes to put public safety considerations before financial considerations, then Cabrillo Square should have been warning enough for the San Diego City Council. Yet, the First Interstate fire serves as a sharp reminder, that almost five years later, the people working and living in 51 high-rises in San Diego lack the kind of protection that firefighters say they should have. It also sharply discounts economic arguments against sprinklers.

The San Diego Fire Department is working on a proposal to require sprinklers in high-rises. The City Council should strongly encourage the effort.