IN 1993 a fire swept through the Paxton Hotel on the city’s North Side, killing 20 residents. The Paxton Hotel was a single-room occupancy hotel, or SRO, and had not installed automatic fire sprinklers, the only fire-protection system that could have stopped the carnage. There has never been a multiple loss of life from fire or smoke in a fully sprinklered building.
Today, despite the lessons of the Paxton Hotel fire, less than 5 percent of Chicago’s 200 SROs have installed sprinklers. The primary reason is cost. Under Chicago’s present building code, SROs are required to install fire-sprinkler systems of the same caliber and expense as Gold Coast luxury hotels. Unchanged since 1973, the existing sprinkler installation code does not take into account the many cost-efficient technologies the sprinkler and plumbing industries have introduced over the last two decades that can make modern fire protection a reality for SROs.
As the co-author of an updated version of the sprinkler-installation code, I am asking for the careful consideration of the City Council, Mayor Daley and the Chicago Fire Department in this matter. The code needs to be changed. It is in the best interest of the city, the real estate community and the more than 17,000 people who reside in Chicago’s SROs.
