Financial losses from fires in Oahu high-rises were more than 12 times greater in buildings without sprinklers than in buildings with them, according to Honolulu Fire Department data covering a decade of blazes.

While the actual damage amounts were relatively small, the dramatic difference in losses between the two types of buildings is likely to fuel the debate on whether the city should require old residential high-rises to install automatic sprinkler systems.

Mayor Kirk Caldwell proposed such a law following the recent Marco Polo fire, which claimed three lives and damaged more than 200 units in the 46-year-old building.

The 36-story Marco Polo is among the roughly 300 residential high-rises on Oahu that do not have sprinkler systems.

From 2006 to 2015, fire losses in high-rises without sprinklers totaled nearly $4.6 million, compared with $366,600 in high-rises with sprinklers, the Fire Department’s numbers show.

The $4.6 million covers 68 fires at residential projects built before the mid-1970s — the only high-rises on Oahu that are not required to have sprinklers. The smaller loss total covers 43 blazes at all other high-rises, including commercial ones, that have the firefighting systems.

Experts say damage from the Marco Polo fire should easily exceed the combined $5 million in losses for the 111 fires at the residential and nonresidential high-rises during the recent 10-year period.

More than 30 of the 80 Marco Polo units that suffered fire, heat or smoke damage have been deemed total losses, according to HFD. An additional 130 units suffered water damage.

Fire investigators have yet to determine what caused the Marco Polo blaze or how much in financial damage it caused.

The HFD data covering the recent 10-year period showed that the disparity in fire losses at high-rises with and without sprinklers was smaller on a per-incident basis but still dramatically different.

For buildings without sprinklers the losses averaged nearly $67,000 per fire, about eight times greater than the roughly $8,500 average at the projects with sprinklers, according to the HFD data.

Retrofitting law needed?

Richard Soo, a retired HFD captain, said the loss disparity, combined with the Marco Polo deaths, should help bolster calls for a mandatory sprinkler retrofitting law.

“Now’s the time,” Soo said.

But Michael Turman, a condo manager for the past 25 years, said that while he believes sprinklers are needed in old buildings, he opposes government officials forcing a condo project to install them.

“They should leave that to the discretion of the governing boards of the associations,” said Turman, who has managed condo buildings with and without sprinkler systems.

Samuel Dannaway, vice president of fire protection technology at Coffman Engineers, said the dramatic difference in loss totals depending on whether sprinklers were present generally mirrors the national experience.

He said he believes the HFD statistics will have a big impact on condos considering whether to install sprinklers.

Although the data show that high-rise fires don’t happen often on Oahu, the blazes have the potential to be severe events, according to Dannaway. “That’s what we’re trying to stop.”

Capt. David Jenkins, an HFD spokesman, said his agency will be providing as much information as it can to support the installation of automatic fire sprinklers in high-rise residential buildings.

In the absence of a mandatory retrofitting law, condo associations have not pursued installations.

Cost is key

Since 2005, when a city task force compiled a list of the roughly 300 residential high-rises without sprinkler systems, none of them have obtained building permits to voluntarily do the work, according to city data.

Cost has been a major obstacle, particularly given the many retirees living in the older projects.

Soo suggested that retirees’ extended families help shoulder the costs, knowing the sprinklers will provide clear safety benefits and that the families eventually will inherit the properties.

Turman said that if the city mandates retrofitting, it should provide financial assistance to condo owners, given that they pay the same taxes as single-family homeowners but do not get the same level of city services, such as garbage collection.

“They should at least recognize that disparity in serv­ices,” Turman said.