May 19, 2005 - Lakewood Apartments Ordered to Repair Fire Alarm System

According to fire department sources, Lakewood Apartments has been ordered by the San Francisco Fire Department to make repairs to its fire alarm system and obtain Underwriters Laboratory ("UL") certification. This was precipitated by the failure of the fire alarm system to function properly in the instances of two fires on the property recently. Lakewood has a deadline of June 5, 2005 to submit a plan to the fire department detailing the steps that they intend to take to meet the demands of the order. Based upon several sources, we understand that the fire alarm system has not been working properly in some areas of the building for a period of years.

In January of 2004, Lakewood Tenants Association (LTA) asked the fire department to inspect the property for various potential fire code violations. They were not responsive until, after further requests by LTA, they sent an inspector to the property in September of 2004. The inspector asked LTA to ask the management to produce the inspection reports or certification documents required by the fire code. We did so yet, while manager Amy Sexton initially promised to produce those documents in a few days, several weeks later she sent us a letter declining to do so, terming them "proprietary business documents." Ms. Sexton then sent a letter to the fire department inspector claiming that the fire alarm system was "in operational order." Because the fire department inspector also refused to produce the inspection report, LTA took legal steps to compel the fire department to produce it to us. The report confirmed our concern that the fire alarm system may have been defective and so we pressed the fire department for enforcement.

Yesterday, we met with manager Amy Sexton and asked what steps Lakewood Apartments is taking to protect the tenants until such time as the fire alarm system is repaired and certified. She told us that there are three manually operated fire boxes (pull stations) in the hallways that are not operating plus a few alarm bells (she could not recall the exact number). She said that there are no hallways that do not have at least one working bell. She stated that they have a full-time patrol of the hallways checking for any sign of fire. In the event of an emergency, such as a fire, their staff know the locations of defective bells and would respond to those areas to knock on doors to get people out. She could not say when the repairs would be completed and the system certified. We asked whether Lakewood Apartments would, in the future, voluntarily post a copy of their alarm certifications in a place where tenants could see them. She said she did not expect they would be willing to do so but that she would check with her superiors and let us know.

Opinion: Lakewood Apartments has been under order of the Department of Building Inspection since 2002 to repair the access doors to provide reasonable assurance that those doors will be self-closing and securely locked against unauthorized entry and under another order to make structural repairs. To the best of our knowledge, neither order has been complied with. It now remains to be seen whether Lakewood Apartments will respect the order of the fire department any more than the orders of the Department of Building Inspection. Until the fire alarm system is repaired, tenants will be at heightened risk of loss of life. While tenants should appreciate any efforts by the management staff to warn tenants in the event of an emergency, should it occur, we do not believe that any such response by staff members can substitute for a properly working fire alarm system because the alarm system, if it were working, would warn entire buildings immediately upon activation by any resident whereas it would take substantial time to relay an alert to staff members on the property in the middle of the night (assuming they are even here), several more minutes for them to get dressed and out the door and probably many more minutes to warn tenants in the affected areas, assuming they would even do so with smoke in the hallways. We will continue to press the fire department to cause prompt repair of the fire alarm system and we will provide further information on this news page as it becomes available.