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Late one winter night, Ms. Mercier awoke to find herself
trapped in her third story apartment by a fire in the exit hallway. Due to the hillside location, the fire
department ladders could not reach her.
The fire burned through her front door and trapped her on her
balcony. With flames breaking through
her balcony door, she suffered 3rd degree burns over 70% of her body
before a ladder engine could rescue her.
We performed an investigation and determined that several factors lead
to this tragedy.
First, the high-temperature limit switch on a Cadet
baseboard heater in a neighboring apartment failed and caused the heater to
overheat. This high heat ignited a
nearby tablecloth.
Second, the smoke alarms were not working in the origin
apartment. The shrieks of a pet parrot
awoke the tenant in this unit who left her apartment in a rush without closing
her door.
Third, there was not automatic door closure device from the
apartment door to the fire egress hallway.
The fire spread quickly to the hallway and trapped Ms. Mercier.
Fourth, the fire-rated door on Ms. Mercier’s apartment was
installed without fire sealant around the frame. The fire burned through the casing in less
than 5 minutes and spread into Ms. Mercier’s apartment.
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