All of us shared in the horror of the Marco Polo condominium fire and the tragic death of four of our residents. The thought of burning to death is hard to imagine. Allowing it to happen again is unacceptable and preventable.
That is why I have fought so hard for sprinklers in our high-rises. The bill I signed into law last May, just a short seven months ago, is a step toward the goal of avoiding another Marco Polo fire. It was a compromise bill with many options for making our residential high-rises safer and with numerous periods of delay for allowing unsafe buildings to come into compliance. Some of these delays are as long as 12 years. This is a long time.
This 12 years is on top of the three years to complete a fire safety evaluation of the high-rise residential building, which runs to May 2021, and passing the evaluation within six years, which runs to May 2024. These are alternatives to retrofitting noncompliant residential high-rises with sprinklers, and residents and condominium associations can pick from a menu of alternatives.
The evaluation process is estimated to cost approximately $30 per unit, which is not cost-prohibitive, especially when we are dealing with human life and safety.
There is a huge cost to delay and taking no action until some later date. One, the lives of the residential high-rise owners are at risk, as well as their unsuspecting guests and renters. Two, the lives of our first responders, especially our firefighters, are at risk. They don’t get to decide whether they climb the stairs of a residential high-rise to the 30th floor to put out a fire. They go.
Three, insurance rates are higher for unprotected residential high-rise buildings. Four, real estate values for units in these buildings are lower. Five, the re-sales of these units are more difficult once disclosures are given that the unit is unprotected from fire hazards.
We are standing up for our seniors who may live in unprotected high-rise buildings and not be able to escape as easily from a raging high-rise fire, as we saw in the Marco Polo condominium fire. We are standing up for our first responders who have no choice but to save people even when it is dangerous for them, and even when something could have been done to protect residents and firefighters from this type of danger.
Furthermore, to delay the implementation of a bill that was only recently signed into law and with a long lead time before implementation is just irresponsible public policy.
For all these reasons I am requesting that the City Council not override my veto, to allow the implementation of the law to proceed, and to amend the law if necessary should problems occur. But to delay for delay’s sake is not a reason to override this veto.
Kirk Caldwell is mayor of the City and County of Honolulu.
