# fire in historic district, Paoli Indiana



## BSSTG (Nov 15, 2010)

Greetings once again to all.

I know there are at least a few folks who have seen, as a result of my posts, that I am attempting to make my town safer with regards to histoic area fire safety. It is an ongoing struggle as I have one case going through court and another situation that we are trying to resolve with regards to limited egress from a second story historic building.  I believe the latter will be worked out to everyones benefit in short order.

Anyway, my point is that when I saw the news on this fire on Sat. it really got my attention. As a result I am hoping to find as much detailed information about what happened. One article said that there were no fire separations between occupancies but that at least some of this block had been "converted" into apartments. That really raises eyebrows for me. Thankfully, no one was hurt.

I'm sure it will take some time to find out the cause though it is suspected to have started as an electrical fire according to one article.

If any of you folks hear of details other than what is posted on the internet I would be obliged if you could pass them on. I am new to fire inspections and have limited experience in these matters. The more info the better.

thanks

Byron


----------



## brudgers (Nov 15, 2010)

Just my two cents:

Unusual life-safety requirements are better handled by proper Fire Service preparation rather than building code enforcement because building code enforcement does not affect all structures.

In other words, you can adopt every building code rule imaginable but it won't replace the need for proper equipment and training for fire house personnel.


----------



## permitguy (Nov 15, 2010)

While you wait for the details on this fire to unfold, I would strongly encourage you to contact the Fire Marshal for Durango, CO (sorry, his name escapes me).  They had a fire in their historic downtown a few years ago, and he has put together an excellent presentation on the subject.  There are lots of great pictures and video, along with the resuts of the investigation that taught them some important lessons.  It's a real eye-opener for anyone dealing with a historic district.


----------



## FM William Burns (Nov 16, 2010)

When I got to my new town in 1994; one of the first things I did was inspect the entire historic downtown business district. I prepared a report for the Chief who brought it to the attention of the City Manager. The report revealed the lack of fire resistance separation between buildings. One could walk through the 2nd and 3rd floors between old stairwells etc. In the recommendations section, we suggested the city create a grant and low interest loan program to allow building owners abilities to purchase and install 1-2 hr. fire rated door assemblies and to test and re-certify existing horizontal assemblies in addition to sealing all discovered horizontal penetrations. This was done and completed and inspected by 1997. 

We saw the need and this was the beginning of our creation of a partnership with the DDA and DBA and now enforcement of fire safety codes for existing buildings has become much easier. Extend the olive branch and be creative in proposals for creating partnerships since if yours is like ours, the city will need to partner with them and as we explained, they needed to since the historic downtown was one of the features that draws business and families to the entire city not just the downtown area.

The existing buildings with apartments (pre 06 IBC) now have full coverage automatic fire alarm and detection (also done by grants from the state). The newer ones (buildings with new apartments) post 06 IBC have sprinklers and fire alarm and detection. We recently have had two neighboring downtows suffer multiple building losses and now our city can say, we saw the need and we are helping one create a code enforcement program since they never had one for existing buildings.


----------

