Aug 20, 2008 6:00 am US/Eastern
New Revelations Emerge In Apartment Inferno
CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa. (CBS 3) ―
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iWitness Photograph of the massive fire that tore through a Conshohocken apartment complex. August 13, 2008.
April Witcoskie
Owners and borough officials were alerted more than two years before the catastrophic Riverwalk inferno that there was a lack of sprinkler protection, an investigation revealed.
The enormous 8-alarm inferno erupted at the Riverwalk at Millennium luxury apartment complex in Conshohocken on August 13, destroying two buildings and damaging several others.
In the wake of the massive blaze, CBS3 has obtained the first access to a trail of permits, inspection reports and violation notices going back to when construction on the complex was first beginning nearly five years ago.
The records, released by borough officials, indicate hundreds of inspections that revealed a handful of mostly minor violations that were quickly corrected.
However, the reports also revealed that on at least eight occasions there were questions raised by professionals working for a fire protection company inspecting sprinklers about why the attics of the building did not have any.
In a report dated December 3, 2006, a line from a report read in part: "In attic there is no fire protection at all."
Another dated June 16, 2006, read: "Bldg. completely sprinklered/attic is wood but has no sprinklers at all?"
In March 2006, another reports read in part: "Attic is not protected. No sprinkler, heat det./smoke det. - wood frames and paneling."
The District Attorney has found that the destructive fire was started by sparks from a welders' torch being used to repair several improperly stalled metal balconies. The fire tore rapidly through the attics of two occupied buildings.
The documents showed the builders obtained what is called a "code variance" meaning under the new code that they were permitted to build under, sprinklers in the attics were not required.
The developer nor borough or state officials did not offer any comment.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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