A recent Los Angeles high-rise fire that killed one and injured several others is now the catalyst for not only a lawsuit but a movement toward change.
Addressing the problem
Members of the Los Angeles City Council want to see a loophole closed that allows certain high-rise apartment complexes to not install sprinkler systems.
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Los Angeles has 55 pre-1974 high-rise complexes built prior to fire-suppression laws went into effect. The high-rise at the center of the movement, the Barrington Plaza Apartments, was built in 1961.
The fire
The fire ripped through the complex on the morning of Jan. 29, killing one and injuring 13, including a 3-month-old baby. This is the second fire at the complex; the first fire occurred in 2013.
The fatality, Jeremy Bru, 19, an exchange student from France originally went to the hospital in critical condition. He died two days later. Bru and another man, who sustained critical injuries, were inside their apartment when the fire broke out. Their unit has significant fire damage.
The fire started on the building’s seventh floor, which is the sixth residential floor.
Sprinklers are required in all but the 55 high-rise apartments that were built between 1943 and 1974. In news reports, city council members called the loophole dangerous.
Cost to the building owner
Fixing the loophole will not be cheap for apartment building owners. In the new proposal, those previously exempt would need to be retrofitted and updated with an average cost being $6,000 per unit. That could be as much as $1.6 million for a 16-story high-rise. Estimated completion time, could be as long as three years.
The day after the fire, apartment resident Charles Agozino filed a lawsuit alleging negligence with the Los Angeles Superior Court naming Santa Monica-based Douglas Emmett Inc. and two subsidiaries, according to news reports. The suit asks for unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, in addition to a declaration of class-action status.