Advisory board urges Chicago to reevaluate fire safety ordinance, require fire sprinklers
ABC7 has learned that individual units are the Harper Square Co-Operative building were not required to have fire sprinklers
CHICAGO (WLS) -- One person is dead after a fire at a high-rise building in Chicago's Kenwood neighborhood Wednesday. Sources tell ABC7 that individual units in the Harper Square Co-Operative building do not have sprinklers.
The head of the Northern Illinois Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board pointed out that after the deadly 2003 fire at the Cook County Administration Building, the city passed an ordinance requiring all residential high rises to pass what's called a "life safety evaluation."
The ordinance does not require sprinklers as long as buildings put in passive measures, such as self-closing doors to contain a fire.
"In this fire, the fire did have an opportunity to escape so it did effect other units, so we can see a building that has passed the life safety evaluation still does not get the job done," said Erik Hoffer, the director of the Northern Illinois Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board.
Hoffer is urging the city of Chicago to re-evaluate its fire safety ordinance.
