New mandates from the Fire Department to make apartment complexes add fire alarms are sweeping Everett. At least 19 apartment buildings across the city do not have the appropriate fire alarm systems.
But just as the halls at The Bluffs apartments were initially silent for lack of a fire alarm system alerting to the rapidly spreading fire in the building on New Year’s Eve, there has been silence for several years on whether The Bluffs and similar complexes are following a 2007 code to have a fire alarm system.
There were 15 injuries and one death in The Bluffs fire, which displaced more than 100 residents.
The Fire Department is now identifying properties similar to The Bluffs in age and size and is inspecting them. Of 26 apartment complexes inspected so far, 19, or 73 percent, were found missing required fire alarms. Another 30 to be inspected may increase the number of violators identified.
Robinson reported that the Fire Department performs 4,300 fire inspections a
year on approximately 1,700 different structures, but commercial buildings like The Bluffs were inspected every other year due to the number of staff available and the workload.
That practice is changing, Fire Marshal Eric Hicks said. Large complexes like The Bluffs will be inspected annually and building
owners will have 90 days to get a permit to install the alarms. The extra workload will be handled by pulling
fire department staff currently assigned to community engagement duties.
“We have to do this and this is what we’re going to do,” Robinson said.