The Problem with High-Rise Residences

Residents of high-rise apartment buildings in New York should be prepared to save themselves in case of an emergency – because high-rise residential buildings are not required to provide residents with a comprehensive evacuation procedure.

The news may come as a bit of a surprise for penthouse-apartment dwellers. If you reside on the 35th floor of a building, do you know how you’ll escape if the 34th floor is going up in flames?
Many of those in such apartments do not. In fact, most are simply advised to stay in their apartment in case of a fire.

“The best thing to do is to shut your door and pray,” said one New York fire fighter, who asked to remain anonymous. “We’ll be there as soon as we can, but until then, you want to keep the fire contained. So just keep your doors shut.”

Indeed, the Office of Emergency Management Web site instructs high-rise residents to do just that.

“If you live in a high-rise residential building, and the fire is not in your apartment, stay inside rather than entering smoke-filled hallways,” the Web site says. “Keep your windows closed, especially if the fire is in the apartment below.”

For one high-rise resident, the fire didn’t become apparent until it was well underway. Liz McNamara, who lives on the 12th floor of The Crest, a 36-story high-rise apartment at 63 Wall St., was spending a sunny day indoors when she thought she heard rain. Confused, she went to the window to find clear skies. And the “rain” she was hearing?


A fire two floors above her had set off the building’s sprinkler system, which was causing a flood in the apartment above hers. Soon, the water was coming through the ceiling into her apartment as well.

“I didn’t know there was a fire in the building until water started pouring from the ceiling,” she said. When she ran into the hall to notify the building manager, she finally heard the fire alarms going off in the stair well.

Fortunately for Liz (and the other residents of The Crest on Wall Street), the building is equipped with a sprinkler system. Without the sprinklers, McNamara could have been dealing with much more serious problems than her soaking wet furniture.

“New York was around 20 years behind the model codes in terms of requiring sprinklers in residential high-rises,” said Charles Jennings, Ph.D., a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, where he also received a Master of Science in fire protection management. Jennings points out that the sprinkler systems basically mitigate most evacuation problems by limiting the fire’s ability to grow and spread. New York finally decreed that all high-rise residential buildings constructed need to be equipped with sprinkler systems in 1999. The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) claims that, no more than two people have ever been killed as a result of a fire, excluding explosions, when the building had a fully functioning sprinkler system.

Still, said Jennings, improvements can be made.

“What residential high-rises need is public address capability, so that residents can get instructions during an emergency,” said Jennings. “This was never required.”

Jennings suggested that residential buildings should be required to be outfitted with two-way communication capability – like that which is currently required in office buildings.

A representative from the Office of Emergency Management for New York City made a simple, somewhat frightening conclusion for those who seek an evacuation procedure for high-rise residences: “There’s nothing in terms of a wide-scale one for apartment buildings – individuals need to be prepare themselves for evacuation.”


PROTECTING YOURSELF IN CASE OF A FIRE: TIPS FROM THE FDNY


1. HAVE A FIRE ESCAPE PLAN

Have a family meeting to discuss what to do if there is a fire. Practice your plan.
2. USE APPROVED WINDOW GATES

Only use approved window gates. Do not use a padlock which will prevent your escape from a fire.
3. DECIDE ON A MEETING PLACE OUTSIDE OF THE BUILDING

By deciding on a meeting place outside and away from the building, you will know if everyone has gotten out safely.
4. SEND THE ALARMDial 911 to report a fire.

Use the local Fire Alarm Box.
5. WALK QUICKLY, DON'T PANIC

Feel the door on your way out with the back of your hand. If the door is hot, do not open. Close door behind you to slow the spread of fire.
6. USE THE STAIRS

Don't use the elevator. It may stop and trap you.Try to place one hand in contact with the wall. This may prevent you from getting lost.
7. STAY LOW AND GO

If there's smoke, escape by staying very low to the ground where air is cooler.
8. OPEN WINDOW IF TRAPPED

Open window at top to let out heat and smoke; and at the bottom to breathe.If you cannot get out, wave a sheet out the window.
9. DON'T GO BACK

Do not go back into a fire for anything! Your life is your MOST valuable possession.


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Sources:
Charles Jennings, Ph.D.: cjennings@jjay.cuny.edu
Office of Emergency Management: www.nyc.gov/oem
OEM Hotline: (718) 422 4800
Liz McNamara: (301) 325-7206
The Crest: 63 Wall Street, (212) 344 6363, (212) 706 3030
National Fire Protection Association: http://www.nfpa.org/ – Research and Reports: Automatic Sprinklers
Fire Safety Tips: http://www.nyc.gov/html/fdny/html/safety/firesafety_escape.shtml

Sarah's Progress Memo

At this point I have interviewed a person whose 36-story building caught fire a few weeks ago. Fire alarms did not go off throughout the building, but they did go off on the floor where the fire started. Her apartment did sustain a lot of water damage from the building's sprinkler system and the fire fighters' hoses. She lives on the 12th floor.

I've also done some research through the FDNY Web site, which is help shedding light on how the fire department responds to emergencies in hi-rise residences. Especially insightful was story of the plane that crashed into the 30th and 31st floors of a 46-story residence on 10.11.06 -- Cory Lidle's small, fixed-wing aircraft. The story of this incident describes the way the fire department responds when they are dealing with a hi-rise evacuation in this way: "The Air Rescue plan calls for two ladder companies and a Battalion chief, who are trained in high-rise roof operations, to meet the NYPD emergency services unit and aviation unit at a designated landing spot to prepare for an airlift."

I've found that fire officials typically ask residents to stay in their apartments with the doors closed during a building fire. For the most part, fires can be contained in the apartment where the fire started due to the construction of the buildings.

Giambusso Gowanus Questions

(To be asked of Professors Richard Plunz, Architecture and Patricia Culligan, Civil Engineering, of Columbia and authors of Eco Gowanus: Urban Remediation by Design).

1. How have designs for Public Place compared with your own ideas and findings for the needs of the area?
2. Who or what stands essentially in the way of implementing your recommendations? Political will? Money?
3. Discuss briefly your research methods? Did you examine tax records, old titles, designs?
4. What are some of the immediate risks of living above and amidst this particular site?
5. Where else in the U.S. have your ideas of green industrial infrastructure been implemented?

Giambusso Gowanus Pitch.

City officials and developers have been encouraging new housing development along a stretch of Gowanus basin, one of the most polluted ecosystems in the country, if not the planet.

"Public Place" is the Orwellian title given to the central project, and is currently being vetted for construction over a former gas manufacturing plant. A high-rise apartment building with affordable housing, commercial/office space, and outdoor landscapes is being proposed over a festering toxic mass, in the belief that two centuries of sewage and all manner of toxic dumping can be covered up with a slab of concrete and a fresh coat of paint.

The central question of my investigation will be, what guarantee can the developers and policy makers give that this site is safe to live on? Professors of architecture and engineering at Columbia recently published a survey of the site that suggests the financial and political investment necesarry to seriously remediate the Gowanus basin isn't feasible.

One of the major safety issues after 9/11 has been airborne toxins from building demolition and construction. To what extent have we heeded these lessons and to what extent has the rabid development market run afoul?

Photo survey of proposed site:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/giambusso/sets/72157604111664762/

Residential High Rises

I would like to explore the evacuation procedures and mandates for residential high-rise buildings. An article published in The Cooperator, a monthly condo and co-op publication, pointed out: “Although no New York City law requires that residential buildings have an emergency evacuation or management plan, experts generally agree that it’s smart for residential buildings to consider what they would do in the case of an emergency.”The article goes on to say that exit signs are required, as well as floor plans that mark the points of exit in case of an emergency. “Beyond those things, however, the city of New York doesn’t require that residential buildings formulate or maintain an emergency management or evacuation plan, nor do they require that these buildings make use of the photoluminescent exit path markings that are required by Local Law 26 of commercial buildings over the height of 75 feet.”I’d like to get in touch with the building management at some of New York’s highest high-rise residential buildings and see if they have formulated an effective evacuation plan in case of an emergency. The article’s link is: http://cooperator.com/articles/1352/1/Planning-for-Emergency-Evacuation/Page1.html

Interview Questions - Residential High Rise Evac. Proceedures

Interview Questions:
1. Why aren't evacuation management procedures required in residential buildings in New York City?
2. Why aren't residential buildings required to have photoluminescent lighting to aid in evacuations as is required of commercial buildings by Local Law 26, a part of the New York Building Code?
Questions for Building Management:
1. Do have an evacuation management procedure for the tenants in your building -- even though one is not required by the city?
2. If so, what is it?
3. Did your evacuation plan change after 9/11? If so, how?
4. What considerations were made when formulating your evacuation plan?
5. If you don't have an evacuation management proceedure, why not?

High Rise Residential Building Evacuations

HIGH-RISE RESIDENTIAL BUILDING EVACUATIONS (Tressler) If the city of New York does not require residential buildings to have an emergency evacuation plan, how do high-rise residences in New York City plan for an emergency on their own?

The standards that commercial buildings have to meet are nil for residential buildings, regardless of the number of floors the building has. With so many high-rise residences in the city, how do residential building managers ensure the safety of the buildings’ occupants in the event of an emergency?