Condos face decision on sprinklers

In the months ahead, many residents of older high-rise condos will be deciding whether they want to buy a potentially expensive fire safety sprinkler system or save the money.

A state law that took effect July 1 is allowing residents in older buildings to say no to retrofitting their buildings for sprinklers as long as a majority of owners agree. Some condo association attorneys are already meeting with residents to discuss the new law's impact.

Miami Beach's chief fire prevention analyst Sonni Moore is urging condo owners to put lives ahead of money and install the sprinklers.

"You just never know when a situation might affect your family,'' Moore said.

Others, however, contend that their condo buildings -- at least for now -- can't afford the sprinklers, not when they are facing foreclosures and fewer people to help pay for maintaining the high-rises.

"It is a big expense,'' said Joseph Buerk, president of the 61-unit, 10-floor Seacrest Towers Condominiums in Pompano Beach, who plans to ask owners to vote to opt out of installing sprinklers. He noted that his 39-year-old building is made of stucco and concrete, not of more fire-prone wood.

"We have foreclosed units,'' Buerk said. "We are fortunate that we don't have as many as other buildings. But installing the sprinklers would be a burden.''

The controversial sprinkler exemption is part of a new batch of laws that took effect July 1 in an effort to make condo living more affordable in a tight economy. Now the state doesn't require owners to insure their unit's contents.

Florida also has reversed itself and no longer requires high-rises to have at least one generator-run elevator during power outages that occur during a major storm as long as a majority agrees that it is not needed.

This has alarmed some fire officials and grass-roots activists who worry that older South Florida condos would not be prepared for a major fire or another major hurricane like 2005's Wilma, which destroyed thousands of condo units and left many buildings without power for weeks.

"Remember the old folks had to be carried down the stairs,'' said Jan Bergemann, president and founder of the statewide, grass-roots Cyber Citizens for Justice.

Others say many condo owners in older high-rise buildings can't afford costly assessments for the sprinklers and generators. Plus, condo owners say they, not the state, should decide how they spend their money.

"It's all about choice,'' said Donna Berger, an attorney and executive director of Community Advocacy Network.

The new law allows high-rise buildings of more than 75 feet to opt out of installing the sprinkler system as long as a majority of owners vote for that by 2016. If they do not vote by then, the owners will have to chip in to pay for the sprinklers.

Neither the new law nor the old one that required sprinkler retrofitting covered shorter buildings where fires have broken out.

A Labor Day fire, for example, claimed the life of an elderly tenant of a two-story condo building in Lauderhill. Firefighters blamed the woman's clutter -- belongings filled the unit's hallway to all but about an 18-inch passageway -- as hindering their rescue efforts. Last May, fire destroyed another building in the same complex but there were no injuries. Both buildings were without sprinklers.

Even if high-rise communities vote not to install the sprinklers, their buildings will still have to have a safety system that passes inspection by local fire departments, said attorney Ken Direktor, chairman of the Community Practice Group for the Fort Lauderdale-based Becker & Poliakoff law firm. Owners living in a high-rise can vote again in three years to install the sprinklers if they change their minds.