City of San Antonio
Fire Code Mandate, relating to high rise structures and fire prevention, 2015
 

On December 29, 2014, the Wedgewood Apartments here in San Antonio caught on fire. This was an 11 story high rise building that accommodated senior living in Castle Hills just off loop 410 and Blanco Road.

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The fire killed 6 people and put 53 more in the hospital with injuries ranging from minor to life threatening. The blaze required 3 alarms from 7 different fire departments in the San Antonio area. The result was that the building was condemned and over 100 residents were forced permanently from their homes in the building. Numerous lawsuits in the millions of dollars were filed and settled.

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And why? The building did not have an adequate operating fire panel system, it did not have any fire suppression fire sprinklers, it didn't even have a fire evacuation plan for its residents, especially the elderly or mobility challenged. The building had frequent 'false alarms', management was incompetent, ignorant, and unresponsive to the dangers destined to happen.

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Sound familiar? Wurzbach Tower does not have any fire prevention sprinklers (even though it has been mandated to have them since 2015!!), we have constant false alarms, we have a partially inoperable ancient fire alarm panel acknowledged by Mary Demain, President of Wurzbach Tower in her own words, and none of us have ever seen a fire evacuation plan.

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The Wedgewood fire galvanized the fire chief and city council persons into action. Ordinance 2015-11-12-1-0946 was approved by the Honorable Ivy Taylor, Mayor of San Antonio on November 12, 2015 and put into law effective January 1, 2016. Concurrently, the Governor of Texas signed into a law mirroring the San Antonio law requiring all high rise structures in Texas to be retrofitted with fire suppression sprinkler systems. These parallel laws require strict date sensitive milestones to be completed including for this discussion all buildings, including Wurzbach Tower MUST have at least 50% of its floors sprinklered by January 1 2025. It is not possible to complete such an enormous task in a few months.

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The incompetent leadership of Wurzbach Tower have squandered 9 years, NINE YEARS, of time to complete the installation of a safety mandate so dire that laws were enacted to force buildings embrace the life safety upgrades of buildings for residents/occupants. What was contracted for in 2017 at a cost of $146K was never executed and now the cost is estimated to be at least $1.2 million (or more depending on the results of the investigation of the sprinkler contractor).

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But of course there are 'explanations' and excuses, even justifications. The incompetent board management has a well rehearsed line of excuses they pull out to justify their incompetence like, we are a concrete building. Yes we are, and uniquely so. But this 40 + year old concrete building

has flaws built into it too. Unsealed chases rise through each floor and most condo's. These chases will allow smoke to enter nearly every space of every floor of the entire building. Statistics prove that smoke inhalation is the number one cause of fatalities in a fire event, not direct contact with the fire itself. And this concrete building is full of flammable items; furniture, carpets, cleaning supplies, walls, doors, clothing, plastics (the computer you are reading this on is flammable and produces toxic fumes) 'and the list is endless...all will burn and produce smoke. Multiply just what is in one condo by 154 units and you can see the math of just how much flammability is contained in Wurzbach Tower.

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Speaking of math, how many times have we been assessed for the fire sprinkler system installation? Once, twice, three or more times in the last 9 years? Our lawyers are scrutinizing the assessments, costs, performance timing, and inaction of the board of directors with specific emphasis on fiduciary responsibility and how that has impacted each condo owner. Stay tuned!

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Interestingly, the City of San Antonio has taken a keen interest into what we have been assessed and paid to the association over the years regarding the sprinkler mandate. Do you know that the City of San Antonio has the power to conduct a financial audit of our building to determine why our association is telling the fire department "we don't have the money to install the sprinklers system"? The City has quite a few, some unpleasant, remedies in store for WT if they fail to meet the 50% requirement of fire sprinkler installation by January 1. It is our understanding that the City

will not tolerate becoming non compliant with a critical safety law passed 9 years ago just because we say "we don't have the money". As an owner of WT, are you troubled by this situation? And are you even more troubled that a lick of this has NOT been mentioned in previous annual meetings, newletters, chest pounding videos of how wonderful things are, and watch the incompetent management paint our white curbs and move pots around???

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And if there is a major fire event at Wurzbach Tower, how will you feel about the 'excuses', the failed ancient obsolete fire panel, the lack of progress to comply timely with the law, the potential lawsuits against the building like the millions of dollars awarded to victims like Carabin & Shaw law firm successfully prosecuted. For interesting details, look at www.carabinshaw.com website to see the tragic results of successful litigation.

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Like other critical matters affecting this building, our building, we as a group are no longer silent. We are committed to change...immediate change.

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