Comments on: Harvard Hall Residents: Fire Alarms Didn’t Work

By: wireless house alarm

wireless house alarm — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 11:01:31 +0000

It is indeed scary that the fire alarms didn't work when the incident happened. Facilities such as these should make sure that all security systems are functioning properly. A regular check up and maintenance should be accomplished.

By: 7thFloorResident

7thFloorResident — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 23:55:37 +0000

I live on the 7th floor. The alarms did not go off. They are really loud when they do. There was a false alarm back in summer of '07 and I jumped right out of bed. Funny it was at 2:30 in the morning too. For this real fire I was lucky enough to be awake and I heard a faint ringing of the West elevator alarm. I only heard it because I had just turned off the tv and had walked near my apartment door to the hall. I wouldn't have heard it in the bedroom. The elevators have alarms hooked up to smoke detectors, so they don't run in the event of a fire, but, when activated the doors are shut closed and the alarm is muffled inside the elevator shaft. You can only hear it if you live right in front of the elevator. But it is definitely not loud enough to wake you up. Since the fire was on the West side of the building it took a long time before the other elevator alarm went off on the East side by my door. The hall filled up with smoke so fast I was afraid to go out there. I thought the fire was on my floor because of all the smoke. It took less than a minute for it to fill. When I first looked it was only half full then I looked out after I had put my shoes and coat on and it was full. Borger had not educated their residents on how to use the fire alarm and I had no idea that I had to pull it. It is really hard to factor pulling an alarm into your escape plan because when you see that smoke coming in so fast you go into survival mode and just think about the basics: getting you cat into its carrier and grabbing your shoes and coat and whatever other absolute necessary things you have to have. How do you know how close the fire is and how much time you have to get out?? When fires get to a certain flash point they can burn fast so if you see alot of smoke you really have to get going. You don't know, so you move with lightning speed. It makes it very hard to go halfway down the hall into the choking smoke and pull the box to sound the alarm. When the clock is ticking and you have to save you and your cat it makes it easy to miss pulling the alarm. This is a very fallable system and all buildings in DC should retire it. It is way too risky to have to rely on someone else to pull the alarm while I'm sleeping at night. There are too many holes in this system. The whole time this was happening I couldn't figure out why the alarm wasn't going off?? All I could do was yell down the hall and hope that that would wake people up. I talked to some people who lived right in front of the West elevator and did not hear it ringing, it was very faint. They heard me yelling luckily. The city council needs to change the laws that allow these old buildings to be "Grandfathered" into the old fire regulations for apartment buildings. (Aparently a lot of old buildings in DC don't have to have modern fire alarms) Their cheap owners don't want to spend the money to upgrade their buildings to modern standards. They don't care about the tenants, they just want to make money off of us. What about when their greed kills us with the smoke of a fire in our sleep. Greed in America is really something. These owners of these buildings are just like all the jerks on Wall Street who greeded us into our financial crisis. Pigs. The tenants of DC need to rise up and change these laws. Write your council member and get them to propose new regulations to be enacted by the city council!!

By: Mariekel

Mariekel — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 04:33:17 +0000

Beth Reiber's approach to this frightening event is not surprising, given Borger's less than sterling record of tenant care. But it is remarkably callous. Aside from placing the blame squarely on tenants, she, as Borger's manager for this building, has expressed not one ounce of concern for the welfare of tenants in the aftermath of the fire. No public statement of good wishes has even been extended to the tenant who is fighting for her life or to her family.

By: Jeff Simmermon

Jeff Simmermon — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:48:16 +0000

This doesn't surprise me in the slightest. When I lived in Harvard Hall (from 2004 - 2007) my bathroom ceiling caved in, the basement flooded continually, and cockroaches constantly partied INSIDE my refrigerator.

I was on the building council at that time (tip of the hat to Brian Vallelunga) and also dealt with Beth Reiber personally. Now that I work in PR, I really feel for her -- she's forced to represent a company that wouldn't call an ambulance when its own bulding collapsed. Which that one will - and soon, too.

By: 6th Flr Resident

6th Flr Resident — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 19:25:37 +0000

Another 6th Floor resident: I know what you mean. When I stumbled out into the empty hallway towards the stairs, I assumed I was also the last person to know.

It seems any of the ways to wake up residents to get themselves out were not in place! Harvard Hall desk person, other Harvard Hall staff, fire fighters not pulling alarm. Residents not knowing to pull alarm or thinking it was broken, apt. smoke alarms not working, elevator alarms not loud enough.

Shouldn't there be BUILDING SMOKE ALARMS? So at the first sign of smoke in any shared hall, stair, elevator, or basement triggers the building fire alarm to go off, alerting everyone in the building at once.

At present, if a fire occurs in a public building space and tenants are in their apts. asleep, no one knows to pull the alarm.

By: Another 6th Floor resident

Another 6th Floor resident — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:56:36 +0000

6th floor resident: No one knocked on our doors. I feel horrible that when I saw the smoke and raced from the building, I assumed everyone was out because the floor was deserted. And I, like many others, assumed the alarm system was broken because it was not ringing and thus did not pull it. I hope you are OK. I don't think the smoke should have to travel from the fire into our apartments before an alarm goes off- something should be blaring in the hall long before then!

I wrote Jim Graham as well regarding the fire codes and Harvard Hall and particular- everyone who is able should contact him as well- it seems things only happen in DC after lots of people make a big fuss!

By: shocked

shocked — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 17:47:36 +0000

Jesus, this is shocking. I'm going out to buy my own smoke detectors now, even though my management co just installed their own a year ago.

By: another Harvard Hall resident

another Harvard Hall resident — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:34:56 +0000

When the alarms do go off in Harvard Hall they are REALLY loud, I don't think anyone could sleep through them.

6th fl resident: I heard that fire fighters told some residents on your floor to stay put -- I'm assuming they didn't want them going into the worse smoke in the hall and passing where they were working on the 4th floor, but I really don't know. That would be a good question for the building meeting this week.

By: Dorchester Resident

Dorchester Resident — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:47:51 +0000

I live in the Dorchester House, yet another Borger building. We had some false alarms over the summer - the bell is right outside my door and I could barely hear it. It was low in volume and only intermittently ringing. I would not have heard it in my bedroom, even if I was awake.

I will be talking to my neighbors and writing letters - this is unacceptable!

By: 6th Flr Resident

6th Flr Resident — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:37:07 +0000

I was wondering if anyone banged on doors on the 6th Fl. I woke up to a burning throat at 3am, went out to the living room and the space was a smoke fog. I did not hear anyone bang my door. My smoke alarm that they installed from a few months ago did not go off. In the living room, I could hear the elevator alarm faintly.

I had been breathing the smoke for over an hour. When I went into the hallway for the stairs, it was still pitch quiet.

The smoke alarms that they install in our apartments should work. Mine was useless.

By: Argonne resident

Argonne resident — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 13:29:48 +0000

I live in the Argonne, another Borger property, and we had a fire there over Christmas. The smoke alarm in the hallway sounded like a slow clanging and many people did not know what the sound was. I was also infuriated that they only sent a letter weeks later to the residents saying that we should be careful not to leave things plugged in and turned on.

By: Prince Of Petworth » Blog Archive » Harvard Hall Fire Inquiry

Prince Of Petworth » Blog Archive » Harvard Hall Fire Inquiry — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 05:15:53 +0000

[...] was coverage of the fire in the City Paper and the [...]

By: Brian Vallelunga

Brian Vallelunga — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 04:15:45 +0000

The association is still alive, but the site has not been updated in a long while. We're currently using the Google Group for communication.

We've scheduled an all-building meeting for Wednesday night at 7:30pm (building lobby) to discuss the fire, Borger's response and what we can do going forward to improve the safety for all tenants.

I encourage all residents to join the group and post their thoughts concerns on the list.

Brian Vallelunga

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 04:01:27 +0000

Thanks for the link- it seems to be alive. I just joined the Harvard Hall Google Group which can be accessed from the link you posted. There was a message posted today about the fire by the president of the association as well as messages from other residents.

By: 2B3S

2B3S — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 03:14:28 +0000

It's obvious from Reiber's finger-pointing memo that covering Borger's ass -- and not necessarily the welfare of HH residents -- is her primary concern at this point, less than 24 hours after a blaze that could've be catastrophic, had we not been so lucky.

I think it's incumbent upon us residents to meet and organize if we want to live in a safer building. We once had a tenants' association.

http://harvardhalltenants.org/

Anyone know if it's still alive?