The New Jersey Department of Community Affairs (DCA) recently decided not to force older high-rise buildings to be retrofitted with fire sprinkler systems. High-rises built after the late 1980s were required to have the systems, but close to 100 buildings in Bergen County went up before the law was changed.
The sprinkler industry and the New Jersey Apartment Association, a group representing building owners, offered different cost estimates to install sprinklers in the older high-rises, many of which are in Fort Lee and Hackensack. The DCA’s independent consultant estimated that it would cost $16 per square foot.
"We firmly believe that the cost, whatever it may have ended up, would have been far too excessive an amount for New Jersey residents at this time," DCA Spokesman Chris Donnelly said.
Local leaders applauded the decision, as Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich previously wrote to Gov. Jon Corzine asking him to "consider the far reaching and virtually insurmountable financial impact" on residents.
With the bad economy already forcing people out of their homes, no one wants to see the costs of living increase significantly. In addition to sprinklers, older buildings often need costly repairs and renovations.
But how much money is too much to save a life?
The New Jersey Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board, which represents manufacturers and workers, issued a statement saying it definitely understood the challenges of the current economic climate. But it said the law would have helped protect "New Jersey’s most vulnerable populations, and the fire service professionals who risk their lives to serve them."
Last year the DCA imposed an automatic sprinkler requirement on nursing homes, citing an analysis by the National Fire Protection Agency that showed nursing home fire related fatalities can be reduced by as much as 82 percent with an automatic sprinkler system. A 2004 report by the Government Accountability Office on nursing home safety said there has never been a multiple-death fire in a nursing home fully equipped with sprinklers.
The DCA had until Sept. 17 to adopt the law but can revisit the issue in the future, while it also looks at alternatives to improve safety.
Despite the decision, building owners should take the initiative to make the residents and firefighters safer. If the DCA approved the law owners would have had four years to comply, so it wasn’t expecting change overnight. But hopefully in the next five years the economy will improve and the buildings made safer. High-rises do have some safety precautions in place, but in some cases they are not enough. Hopefully we won’t be writing stories about a fatal fire that could have been avoided if sprinklers were in place.
