The Tulsa Fire Department wants to require sprinklers to be retrofitted in all high-rise apartment buildings by 2010. Homeowners and building owners are upset over the cost. Two buildings mentioned that would need retrofitting are the Sophian Plaza and Liberty Towers.
http://www.kotv.com/main/home/stories.asp?whichpage=1&id=82523I’m all for safety, and this should be required on new construction but is retrofitting really needed? The last high rise fire in Tulsa was the Petroleum club almost 20 years ago and that was arson. Has there ever been a residential high rise fire in Tulsa? We want more people to live downtown and have millions of dollars set aside for that goal, but at the same time we are going to make it harder for even the existing downtown dwellers to live there? I know these two buildings and most of the high-rise apartment buildings in town are technically south of downtown in the “uptown” area, but still, if it wasn’t for the IDL they would be considered downtown and if the housing market is hurt there it will hurt downtown.
I’m also worried about what the impact is on converting older office buildings to residential use. Is adding sprinklers already required? Is that why it’s so hard to get these projects done? And if it’s not already required this is going to make building conversions that much harder. The fire department wants the rule for all buildings over 75 feet and I don’t know what adding a system like this might cost, but if it’s too much we might as well start leveling most of the older buildings now and get it over with.
I’m sure someone knows more about this than I do, am I overreacting?
