Some answers about the sprinklers at the Mill View Apartments fire.

Jim Lentz sprinkler.mp3

There is a full investigation of the Mill View Apartments fire in progress. Below is Coatesville Firefighter Jim Lentz’s opinion in response to questions at last night's Coatesville City Council meeting as to why the sprinkler system did not put out the fire:


Coatesville Firefighter Jim Lentz, “To answer the sprinkler question; the building to my knowledge is sprinklered to code then (when structure was built) and it may still be the code today. If it’s not the code to today’s standard it would be a little more restrictive.


What transpired is the fire started on the balcony, where the fire level occurred. The balconies are unprotected. Then, balcony to balcony caused the fire auto exposed right up the walls into the floor above it and into the cog wall where there is no protection.


Those buildings are designed to protect any apartments and the stairways as life saving sprinklers. Enough sprinklers for people to get out. So the fire burning over the top of sprinklers and dropping down, the ceilings are gone, it’s hot but the heat level would just take off and the sprinklers don’t pop open. The other problem is its plastic pipe. So, the pipes are in the attic ceiling, the sprinkler is underneath the drywall. When the fire burns down it melts the pipe before it melts the sprinkler head and then you don’t have a controlled sprinkler system. It’s the way the building code is".


City Manager Ted Reed, “We will be investigating all of it the whole situation and hopefully we’ll have a full report that the Fire Departments will get and obviously the City Council would.”


The “City Manager’s Report” which largely concerns the fire is here: