Regulations examined after high-rise fire

A fire broke out on the 12th floor of a 21-story high-rise apartment building on North Lake Shore Drive Sunday, Jan. 8, resulting in the death of Shantel McCoy, 32, and the injury of nine others.

The apartment building, located at 3130 N. Lake Shore Drive, is over 60 years old and does not have up-to-date sprinklers and fire alarms. The building is not required to adhere to current regulations because it was built before 1975. All Chicago apartment buildings built before that date are allowed to follow outdated regulations regarding sprinklers and fire alarms.

All Chicago apartment buildings were supposed to update the safety requirements to the current standards by Jan. 1, 2012, but City Council passed a recent ordinance (49-0) to extend the deadline to Jan. 1, 2015.

Bill McCaffrey from the Department of Buildings said the deadline extension is likely due to building owners' concerns about finances.

McCoy died from heat exposure when she took the elevator to her apartment on the 12th floor, not knowing there was a fire. The building does not have a fire alarm system that sounds throughout the entire building, so McCoy could not hear the 12th-floor alarms from the first floor.

Current elevator regulations require elevators to be equipped with a fire alarm initiating device that turns the elevator off in the case of a fire, but 3130 N. Lake Shore Drive and other apartment buildings built before 1975 are not required to have these devices until 2015.

Despite the safety hazards, the building was complying with current law.

"There are no current outstanding violations in this building regarding fire safety," McCaffrey said.

The building at 3130 N. Lake Shore Drive is not the only building in Chicago that has not been updated. According to McCaffrey, there are around 700 buildings that still need updates. McCaffrey did not have statistics on how many of the older buildings have been updated so far.

Joe Roccasalva, a spokesperson for the Fire Department, said they have responded to many fires in buildings that do not have updated sprinkler and fire alarm systems. Despite the hazards these buildings pose, the fact that they are not updated does not affect their investigation, he said.

Many DePaul students rent apartments in Chicago but are not aware their building may not have updated sprinkler and fire alarm systems. Evan Levine, a senior, lives in the dorms this year but has rented an apartment in Lincoln Park in the past. He didn't know if his apartment was up to date regarding fire safety, but he doesn't recall there even being a smoke detector in his apartment.

"I'm dead serious that it never crossed my mind," he said.

Simona Herlo, the customer service manager at 3130 N. Lake Shore Drive, declined to comment.