Residents of the 90 Montgomery County residential high-rise complexes without firesuppression sprinkler systems are facing grave dangers, according to top county fire officials.
Two recent fires at luxury high-rises in Bethesda, Md., resulting in $1.2 million in damages, eight displaced families and critical injures to a 21-year-old woman, have thrust the problem to center stage for the department. Neither building had sprinklers.
Mike Donahue, the county’s assistant fire chief and deputy marshal, said the department usually deals with about two major high-rise fires per year. “Sprinklers are absolutely worth it,” he said.
Donahue and his colleagues are working to change county code to require all high-rises to have sprinkler systems. Currently, all new construction must include sprinklers, but older buildings are not required to be retrofitted.
The requirement, though a part of the national fire-safety standards generally adopted by the county, has been amended out of the code for political reasons: Requiring buildings to retrofit would cost them around $4 per square foot, amounting to more than $1 million for many buildings, Donahue said.
“It’s gotta come out of somebody’s pocket, and those become pass-on costs,” he said, alluding to hikes in rent or building fees. Compounding the financial problem is the fact that many high-rise dwellers are senior citizens living on a fixed income.
“If you raise the rent by $200 to cover the costs, it becomes a choice. Do I eat dog food? Do I pay for meds? Or do I live here?” Donahue said.
Aware of the problem, fire officials around the state are currently crafting legislation designed to ease the financial burden to building owners should code require them to retrofit. The new requirements would also allow the retrofit to take place over a couple of years.
Not all high-rise dwellers, however, are too keen on the idea despite the department’s recommendations. Steve Kurtz lives at The Promenade, one of the Bethesda complexes to have caught fire in the past month, and is the formerly chaired the complex’s property committee.
“It would be a phenomenal cost,” Kurtz said. “And the building is made out of concrete, so fire doesn’t spread easily between units.”
