By Sheli Lulkin

July 22, 2013 – The Illinois State Fire Marshal has lit a fire under residents all over the state with proposals to change the fire code. The changes affect every homeowner and renter regardless of whether their home already has a sprinkler system. It also attacks Chicago’s “Home Rule” powers, motivating the city to join in the fray.

Under one of the proposals, any building over four stories high or having more than eleven units would have to install sprinklers. Restaurants and places of worship or amusement with more than 300 seats would also have to comply.

Many buildings in downtown Chicago are already equipped with sprinkler systems. It has been a requirement for city construction since 1975. But even those that have sprinklers and older buildings that have complied with the city’s Life Safety requirements could have other new rules with which to comply.

The new requirements are in front of a little known state committee, the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules. Without going through the legislative process, this committee approves rules being introduced by state agencies like the Illinois Department of Public Health and the Illinois State Fire Marshal. The Illinois General Assembly has defeated Fire Marshal proposals several times.

To avoid delays like when Life Safety requirements were being implemented, the rules would require that 25 percent of the work be done in the next three years. Landmark and historic buildings would have special rules that have not yet been announced. All new construction would have to comply immediately.

[According to Robert M. Buhs, executive director of the Illinois Fire Chiefs Association, the amended Life Safety Code will only apply to new construction and not remodeling or retrofitting.]

All high-rises and buildings with eleven or more units would have other rules for compliance. Stairways would have to exit onto a public way even if walls need to be broken. All stairways would have to be ventilated for smokeless evacuation.

Most dangerous, according to the Association of Sheridan Road Condo/Co-op Owners, is the proposed requirement that there be manual “pulls” for fire alarms on each floor. The fire department wants residents to stay in their units but the average response time to a 911 call in Chicago is three minutes. All it would take, the association says, is for one person to panic and pull an alarm. They fear residents could then be trampled running down stairways while firefighters are running up.

Many property management companies, including Draper & Kramer, Community Specialist Property Management, and Sudler Property Management, are contacting residents of their buildings and giving them instructions on how to fight these proposals through a letter writing campaign. August 12 is the closing date for public input and protest. The City of Chicago Department of Buildings is providing information to people who call 312-743-3600.

Sheli Lulkin is president of the Association of Sheridan Condo/Co-op Owners and editor/publisher of condobytes.info.