Fire code update deadline approaching for city's high-rises

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Owners of older high-rise buildings in Chicago now have until the New Year to bring them up to the current fire code.

High-rises built before 1975 have been given extra time to retrofit their buildings and bring them up to code, but the city says they will offer no more extensions and the work has to be completed.

In the aftermath of the County Building fire in 2003, the city went through the laborious and sometimes heated process of enacting a new hi-rise life safety code. Over 700 residential high-rises built before 1975 must have their safety upgrades in place by January 1, 2015. And if they don't, the city says it will take them to court.

"January 2, we will be filing additional charges against every building that has not yet passed through inspection in the life safety portfolio,' said Chicago Building Commissioner Felicia Davis.

That portfolio is largely enclosed stairwells, self-closing fire doors throughout, building wide communications in the event of fire. None of that is inexpensive, but the ordinance has been nine years in the making.

The city has a list of 40 some residential hi-rise buildings that it says have yet to be inspected or haven't even filed their plans for construction.

"We're aware, we're working on it," was the comment from one building. No comment from the managers of one South Shore high rise on the list.

A couple of the buildings that the city says are being referred to court like one on the Gold Coast, and one South Shore high rise, which have already made required changes and await inspections, according to owners and managers. But if the broader thinking was that there would be another extension to the deadline, the commissioner says forget it.

"There has been loss of life in the past and any further delay would be untenable for me personally to be a part of any further delay," Davis said.

The hammer the city has is the fines it will ask the court to impose. They could range from $1,000 to $2,500 a day.

For those high-rise residential buildings that have not yet filed plans for their life-safety code re-work, there is no way they'll make deadline, and they could be looking at a pretty heavy hit to the pocketbook.