October 29, 2003—A sprinkler system would have prevented the deaths that occurred on October 17th when fire broke out on the 12th floor of a Cook County, Ill., high-rise, according to the Northern Illinois Fire Sprinkler Advisory Board.
“If sprinklers had been present throughout the building, there would not have been the need to evacuate the building,” says Tom Lia, the board’s executive director. “The smoke spread would have been insignificant and the locked stairwell doors would have presented an inconvenience at worst.”
The building, which houses county administration offices, is just one of more than eight hundred tall buildings in Chicago that lacks automatic fire sprinkler systems.
