Fire-damaged Hallandale condo lacks sprinkler system

A Hallandale Beach fire that injured four people Friday happened 

in a high-rise that has yet to install sprinklers.

Article Courtesy of The Miami Herald

By KATHLEEN McGRORY

Published January 20, 2007

Gail Nova thought it was a false alarm. 

But when she looked out the window of her fourth-story Hallandale Beach apartment, she saw two firefighters down below. Nova scurried down the stairs and out of the building.

''Once I was outside, I looked back and I could see the flames,'' said Nova, 60, a medical technician. ``They were shooting out of the window, seven or eight feet. It was really intense.''

By noon Friday, the fire had gutted a third-story apartment, and sent at least two residents, a city police officer and a fire-rescue worker to the hospital with minor injuries.

Fire officials said a sprinkler system would have mitigated the fire.

Like many other older Broward high-rises, Nova's condo building does not have a sprinkler system. Property managers have only recently taken preliminary steps to install one, operations manager Ada Berger said.

Sprinklers have been the source of a contentious battle between fire safety officials and some condo associations. Although state law mandates all buildings over 75 feet install 

THIRD-STORY BLAZE: Flames pour out of a unit at a La Mer condominium building on State Road A1A in Hallandale Beach as a city firefighter moves in on a fire ladder.

sprinkler systems by 2014, some condo boards say the measure is too expensive and unnecessary.

 

''A sprinkler system would have kept this fire in check,'' said Hallandale Beach Fire Marshal Miguel Aleman. "We would never have seen something like this.''

  

The building is in the La Mer complex, in the 1800 block of State Road A1A. The blaze broke out around 7 a.m. in the west tower, in unit 307, which is occupied by Leonard Weinstein, a retired doctor, authorities said.

The first rescue workers pulled Weinstein out of the burning unit. He was rushed to Memorial Regional Hospital and treated for smoke inhalation.

At least a half-dozen agencies responded to the scene moments later. By that time, flames were reaching out Weinstein's large back window, scorching several nearby palm trees.

Only the second, third and fourth floors were evacuated -- fire officials did not deem residents on the other levels to be at risk.

After Friday's fire, the board of La Mer, a three-building condo on State Road A1A in Hallandale Beach, shown here, said it will accelerate plans for a sprinkler system.

Still, residents like Morris and Rita Kesselmen left their apartments on higher floors when fire alarms sounded.

''We could smell the smoke from up on the 15th floor,'' said Rita Kesselmen, a 16-year resident of the building. "Our neighbors told us to get out. We didn't even take anything, we just ran.''

Concerned the fire might climb up the exterior of the building, firefighters worked quickly. They entered the building, dousing the flames from an inside hallway.

''There was very intense heat,'' said Division Chief James Johnson of Hallandale Beach fire rescue. "Within minutes, it melted the frame of the window and broke the glass out.''

It took roughly 40 minutes to knock down the fire, Johnson said.

Firefighters kept the blaze confined to Weinstein's apartment. Still, at least a dozen other units sustained smoke and water damage, officials said.

Fire marshals later deemed the fire accidental.

''We know it was electrical in nature,'' said Andy Casper, a spokesman for the city of Hallandale Beach. "He may have had a combustable material like paper near the source of the fire.''

In the aftermath, La Mer plans to speed up its efforts to install a sprinkler system.

La Mer managers recently purchased a water pump for each of the three buildings. They have yet to be installed.

''It's very costly, but if it needs to be done, we'll get it done,'' said Berger. "As far as safety goes, it's important. And we don't have much of a choice.''

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