High-rise sprinkler controversy heats up

26-Jul-13 – A proposal by the Illinois State Fire Marshal to require sprinklers in many high-rise buildings in Chicago is not going over well with the condominium associations, homeowners, and businesses who would have to install and pay for the sprinklers.

42nd Ward Alderman Brendan Reilly calls the proposed regulations “onerous” and says they “could have a disastrous fiscal impact.”

Part of the controversy is that the state regulations would be mandatory in Chicago, which the city believes has the right to enact its own fire safety standards.

Wrote Reilly in a recent newsletter to constituents, “The State Fire Marshal’s proposed rules mandate a ‘one size fits all’ model that ignores new fire prevention technologies as alternatives to expensive sprinkler retrofits in all older high-rise buildings and even single-family homes that undergo renovations.”

According to Reilly, sprinklers would be required in all high-rise residential buildings. In apartment buildings with eleven or more units and four or more stories, manual “pull” fire alarms that automatically notify the fire department would also have to be installed.

The president of the Association of Sheridan Condo/Co-op Owners calls the manual alarms “dangerous.”

“The fire department wants residents to stay in their units but the average response time to a 911 call in Chicago is three minutes,” says Sheli Lulkin (left). “All it would take is for one person to panic and pull an alarm. Residents could then be trampled running down stairways while firefighters are running up.”

Reilly says the proposed rules are unnecessary since sprinkler systems have been required in new high-rises since 1975. Instead of requiring older buildings to install sprinklers, which he says could cost millions of dollars, the city since 2005 has allowed these buildings to install alternate safety upgrades such as automatic elevator recall, fire alarm systems, and hard-wired smoke detectors.

“The prohibitively high costs associated with [sprinklers] or undergoing duplicative life safety evaluation requiring additional or different upgrades, which may include [sprinklers], will fall entirely on building owners and occupants, through increased rents or special condominium assessments.”

The Illinois Fire Chiefs Association has been hearing complaints about the proposed rules but says there are misunderstandings about how the rules would affect apartment buildings, condominiums, and businesses in high-rise buildings.

Executive director Robert M. Buhs told Loop North News the proposals include nothing not already mandated by the National Fire Protection Association’s Life Safety Code enacted statewide in 2000.

The only difference, says Buhs (right), is that high-rises will now have 12 years to install sprinklers and more time if there are extenuating circumstances. Current rules do not specify a time limit.

Buildings still have the option of passing an “engineered life safety system” evaluation approved by the Illinois State Fire Marshal but that does not include the Chicago Life Safety Evaluation.

The Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, comprised of 12 state legislators, will host a public hearing on August 6. The deadline for public comment is August 12.