Verizon wants out of fire law

By Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

Verizon Hawaii is asking the city for an exemption from a year-old ordinance that would require retrofitting its 17-story Bishop Street building with a fire sprinkler system, arguing that any water leaks could jeopardize the state's telecommunications network and emergency system.

The request from the state's largest phone company has raised concerns from the Honolulu Fire Department that an exemption would open the floodgates to other building owners trying to bypass the law intended to protect firefighters and employees.

"That's definitely a major concern of ours," said Fire Battalion Chief Kenneth Silva. "Once you crack that door, then everybody's going to try (to get an exemption). The time for them to come forward was when we were passing the original retrofit bill."

A bill to exempt telecommunications buildings from the 2001 ordinance comes up as the HFD prepares to issue notice to about 35 O'ahu commercial high-rises that will be required to retrofit their buildings with fire sprinklers because they were constructed before 1975, when sprinkler systems became mandatory in buildings over 75 feet tall.

The compliance letters will be mailed out by mid-November, giving building owners five years to install the systems.

"It gives them time to plan for it, and it gives them time to find a way finance it or tie it in to scheduled maintenance," Silva said. In the interim, the buildings will have to meet other deadlines, such as coming up with evacuation plans.

The bill to exempt Verizon is before the city Council and will likely come up at the committee's next meeting Nov. 20, though the agenda has not been set.

The council passed the retrofit ordinance in October 2001 in response to an April 2000 fire at the Interstate Building, which injured 11 firefighters and caused an estimated $12 million in damage. It took 125 firefighters almost four hours to control the blaze.

Silva said a sprinkler system controls a fire until firefighters arrive, sometimes extinguishing it, and notifies the fire department when it is activated. "It's like you have a firefighter living in your building 24 hours a day," he said.

Verizon is the first building owner to challenge the law, Silva said.

Joel Matsunaga, Verizon vice president of external affairs, testified before the City Council last month that the company should be exempted because accidental water leakage could severely damage the telecommunications equipment, compromising emergency 911 service and long-distance statewide, and lead to an higher rates for Honolulu residents and businesses.

Verizon spokeswoman Ann Nishida put the estimated cost for the sprinkler system at $17.2 million.

Councilman Jon Yoshimura, chairman of the Parks and Public Safety Committee, said the council was working on a compromise between Verizon and the Fire Department.

"I'm confident that we will be able to work through the issue and give Verizon an exemption to protect the state's communications network, and also firefighters and employees," Yoshimura said.

One problem is that Verizon's critical equipment is housed on the first eight floors of the 17-story building, while personnel are on floors above. The floors with equipment are protected by a Halon suppressant system, which releases a gas to suppress fire.

Under the compromise, Yoshimura said, Verizon would be required to install sprinklers on the 11th to the 17th floors, but the ninth and 10th floors would be without sprinklers so accidental leakage would not spread below.

The compromise also would allow the fire chief to grant exemptions.

Fire Chief Attilio Leonardi said the original ordinance already gave him authority to grant exemptions, so the new bill seems unnecessary. "We're not really in favor of exemptions," he said, noting that Verizon had other options to pursue before seeking an exemption.

If he made an exception for Verizon, Leonardi said, "there are other buildings, other telecommunications companies, that might come in (and ask for an exemption), maybe the electric company or something that may have something in their high-rise."

Silva noted, "If you have a fire in the building, then it will create way more damage than if you have a sprinkler system that works properly go off."

Sprinkler systems now are so reliable, Silva said, that the chances of the heads going off accidentally are remote enough to be statistically irrelevant. He added that there are systems that hold pressurized air in the pipes, rather than water, so there would be no accidental leakage.

Verizon has proposed alternative measures, such as pressurizing the stairwells to minimize smoke infiltration, installing smoke seals on stairway doors, installing smoke detectors in all occupied spaces, installing a third standpipe and increasing the number of fire extinguishers.

Reach Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.