Alarms not required by city code
 
By Tony Bartelme
The Post and Courier
Copyright 2007 The Post and Courier
All Rights Reserved

CHARLESTON, S.C. — The Sofa Super Store that burned last week didn't have one of the most inexpensive fire safety devices available: smoke detectors.

According to a 1998 inspection report, city officials noted that the 30,000-square-foot showroom and warehouse complex on Savannah Highway had no fire alarm, automated sprinkler system or smoke detectors.

Colleen Troy, a spokeswoman for the owners, said they believe that the building did not have smoke alarms.

The company's stores in Mount Pleasant and North Charleston do have alarms and sprinklers.

An employee who was trapped in the store during the fire, Jonathan Tyrell III, said he learned about the fire when he began smelling smoke.

By then it was too late to escape. Firefighters found and rescued Tyrell after hearing him pound on the building's metal walls with a hammer.

Some municipalities have adopted codes requiring smoke detectors in homes and businesses.

Charleston follows the International Building and Fire Code, which requires smoke detectors and fire alarms based on the number of occupants who use a building and on a building's use.

Under the code, Sofa Super Store wouldn't have been required to have smoke detectors, said Laura Cabiness, the city's director of public services.

Fire safety officials say when it comes to saving lives, the decision to install smoke detectors in a home is a no-brainer.

The National Fire Protection Association says people have a 40 percent to 50 percent better chance of surviving a fire in their homes if they have smoke detectors.

But it's not as clear in commercial and industrial buildings.

Richard Bukowski, a senior engineer with National Institute of Standards and Technology, said smoke detectors are mainly used to notify people who are sleeping or are in an area of a building where they might not notice a fire.

In single-story commercial buildings such as the Sofa Super Store, smoke detectors usually aren't as useful, he said.

"Sprinklers probably would have done something, but that's another story," he said.