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ILL-PREPARED
FOR FIRES
San Francisco Fire Department Meets with Burned-Out Single Room
Occupancy Tenants.
By KaPonda
The faint sounds, like a wisp of terror, slashed through the tranquillity
of the night. My eyes opened to the constricted area around my bed as
currents of toxins passed through my throat. The wooden interior of the
walls permitted the reek of death to overwhelm the entire hotel room.
I was dressed before my feet had touched the floor
in my frantic rush to determine the reason for the interruption of my
sleep. As I reached for the light, I was turned around by the plume of
smoke that had invaded the fourth floor of the Baldwin Hotel from the
adjoining Sixth Street structure, the Delta Hotel.
It appeared as though I had been the very last person to escape the flaming
disaster on that terrible night in April of Œ97. The blaze of amber soared
high over the ledge of the Delta Hotel. Its insatiable energy devoured
the entire Delta Hotel and part of the Baldwin Hotel. The Delta Hotel
was destroyed. Its rooms are among the 600 other rooms in San Francisco
that have been taken off the market in the last 10 years. Out of the Delta
fire was borne the Mission SRO Collaborative.
On Thursday, March 30, 2000, the Mission SRO Collaborative held a Fire
Prevention Workshop at the South of Market Recreation Center. The workshop
brought together the fire inspector, Patrick Stranahan, San Francisco
Fire Department, and single room occupancy tenants (hereinafter, "SRO"),
along with other housing advocates. The spacious meeting hall at the South
of Market Recreation Center was populated with tenants from hotels of
North and South of Market Street.
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Before Inspector Stranahan made his lengthy presentation, I asked him
what is the Fire Department doing to prevent future disasters to low-income
hotels in San Francisco? He stated that the "San Francisco Fire Department
is aggressively enforcing all codes and also educating residents on fire
prevention." "Furthermore," added Inspector Stranahan, "the Fire Department
has a great relationship with residents of SRO's."
Emanuel Smith of Mission SRO Collaborative did not seem that optimistic
during our interview, however. Mr. Smith admitted to me, confidentially,
that the City is "Ill-prepared for SRO fires." When I had heard some of
the questions put to Inspector Stranahan and had listened to his responses;
and after I had determined that this meeting was convened due to a fire
at the Baldwin Hotel only three weeks ago, I began to understand why Emanuel
had concluded that the San Francisco Fire Department has no game plan
for SRO fires.
As Nick Patel, one of the owners and operators of SRO hotels in San Francisco,
and relatives looked on from the back of the hall, Inspector Stranahan
was responding to a question concerning construction and combustibles
in fire escape areas. A tenant stated that he had called the fire department
and was told he has to identify himself or no one will come out to inspect
the area. Inspector Stranahan responded by saying that there are, "Only
30 fire inspectors covering San Francisco." That is not an adequate amount,
according to him. He noted that Los Angeles has 300 fire inspectors.
I was further convinced that the City is not prepared to handle SRO fires
when a tenant complained that while he was at work his room door on the
third floor had been kicked in during a recent fire, yet the fire had
occurred on the second floor. The explanation given by Inspector Stranahan
was reasonable. That is that the San Francisco Fire Department wanted
to make sure that he was not in there and that the fire did not spread.
However, the tenant's door remained unlocked with all his personal belongings
unattended. Clearly, this constitutes a lack of communication between
members of the fire department and management.
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