Atlanta High Rise Office Fire

Atlanta High Rise Office Fire

The case of Atlanta High Rise Office Fire that broke on June 30, 1989 in Atlanta, Georgia because of an electric fault is significant because it was the first reported case of multiple deaths in U.S. due to a fire accident at a high-rise office building. Five people were killed, and 23 civilians and six fire fighters were injured severely. The building was located at 1720 Peachtree Street and was commonly known as Peachtree 25th Building. (Jennings, 1989)

The main fire protection features of the building were limited. There were manual fire alarm stations located at each exit of the building along with a system of Class III standpipe with 6-inch standpipe risers located in each stairwell, and at each stairway, an occupant use hose station in the interior corridors was situated. During the renovation of the building, two of the floors of the building were equipped with smoke detectors. In the South Tower of the building, the elevators were equipped with automatic fire fighter service features along with automatic recall. Yet, there was no such fire fighter feature on the floor that caught the fire except one elevator in the North Tower. For the purpose of fire fighting, there was proper provision of emergency power and the stairways were also equipped with emergency lighting system. (Jennings, 1989)

The building was properly designed and erected in accordance with the City of Atlanta Building Code. The minimum fire resistance rating for the building was two hours for the concrete floor and three-hours for the columns of the building. It was noticed that no code for fire resistance and protection was violated by the builders. (Jennings, 1989)

The fire that erupted due to an electric fault on the sixth floor was very severe that caused an untenable atmosphere on the sixth floor of the building. The fourth, fifth and seventh floor of the building also suffered minor smoke and fire damage while the sixth floor suffered huge fire damage. The situations were so threatening that a worker jumped out of the sixth floor in order to strive for her survival. No unusual toxic material or gas was reported to erupt due to the electric arcing that caused the fire. (Jennings, 1989)

Some of the occupants on the sixth floor tried to take refuge in the farthest offices from the electric compartments. Most of them broke the windows of the offices that helped them to survive in dense smoke while one of the occupants was found that who failed to break the windows of his office. The occupants might have suffered panic yet most of them were able to think properly and they made three groups. Yet, one of the female occupants was so terrified that she jumped of the sixth floor and was seriously injured but she survived. (Jennings, 1989)

After proper technical investigation, the following points were enumerated as the lessons to be learnt by the accidental fire at the Peachtree 25th Building:

Automatic sprinklers are necessary for high rise buildings. Although experts says that even the automatic water sprinklers might have failed to prevent or restrict the severity of the fire, yet they also suggest that automatic sprinklers might have helped the fire fighters to fight against the extreme high temperatures and it would have also helped the occupants to evacuate the building with much more ease.

Evacuating high rise buildings during emergency often takes more time than evacuating drills in similar conditions. It was noticed that evacuation from the Peachtree 25th building took about one and half minute more than the time taken to evacuate drills.

In many cases, the occupants of the floor of a high rise building which is suffering accidental fire may fail to use fire alarms. An occupant of the seventh floor actually activated the fire alarm.

Fire services should provide proper attention for the fire alarms coming from high risk buildings. A reduced fire fighting facility was sent to the building after the first automatic fire alarm, although after several calls, the fire services provided full-fledged services and support to fight against the emergency.