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OPINIONS
Editorial: Lessons from Emmons fire must not be forgotten
Now that the burned-out shell of the Emmons Jr. no longer looms over 3rd Avenue, it could be easy to forget the events of that cold night a year ago. We cannot allow that to happen.
It started sometime before 11 p.m. A call came in to the Huntington Fire Department that the Emmons apartment buildings were on fire.
When it was all over, nine people were dead. It was the worst fire in Huntington in decades.
The Emmons complex consisted of two buildings in the 1200 block of 3rd Avenue. The Emmons Jr., where the fire started, was the newer and larger of the two. The Emmons Sr. sustained water damage during efforts to control the fire. Both were demolished recently.
As people look back today in remembrance of the fire and the people lost in it, they should also look at today and to tomorrow. We have to ask if we have learned the appropriate lessons from the fire and if we are taking the right steps to prevent another.
Many times since the fire, Huntington Fire Chief Greg Fuller has said the fire could have been contained to a small area if the Emmons had had a sprinkler system. He cites national statistics showing no multilevel building fire in the United States has taken more than three lives when the building has had sprinklers.
The Emmons complex was built before laws required sprinklers, so it was not required to have them. The problem with retrofitting older buildings with sprinklers is that installing sprinklers is a very expensive task.
The city of Huntington has a plan to retrofit the older high-rise buildings with sprinklers. Once buildings are inspected, their owners have 12 years to install sprinklers. Also, as a commercial building's use changes, it will be required to have sprinklers. For example, if a building converts from retail use to residential, the owner must install sprinklers.
That's on the local level. On the state and national level, things move more slowly. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., introduced a bill on Congress to help building owners install sprinkler systems, but it has not moved.
After the Emmons fire, more people paid attention to their fire, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. Those efforts have paid off in saved lives.
What happened on Jan. 13, 2007, was one of those events that truly are life-changing, but only if we remember them.
People who rent a place to live should look for sprinklers or smoke detectors. They should ponder their escape plan should a fire occur. Homeowners, too, should remember to install adequate smoke, fire and carbon monoxide detectors and consider their escape routes.
The Huntington City Council, the West Virginia Legislature and the Congress of the United States likewise should remember their duty to protect people living in high-rise buildings. While the Legislature and Congress have many other items of business and many distractions in this election year, the public must not allow them to pass the buck or to forget their obligations.
