Otis Hotel May Violate City’s Fire Safety Codes

The owner of Spokane’s Otis Hotel may have violated fire safety codes by failing to install smoke detectors inside the rooms.

City law requires all hotels and motels over three stories high to have both a central fire detection system and a “single station” smoke detector in every room.

But residents say that wasn’t the case at the Otis Hotel - where three people were injured Friday in a fire that started on the fifth floor.

“The smoke detector wasn’t there or it wasn’t working properly,” said Spokane Fire Marshal Gary Miller. “If the smoke detector had been there, the (resident) and neighbors should have gotten a much earlier notification.”

Fire officials are still investigating the fire that was started Friday afternoon by an allegedly drunk resident cooking with a hot plate. Miller said the building sustained at least $50,000 worth of damage.

John Ha, the owner of the Otis Hotel, could not be reached Saturday.

Two of the three injured residents - Charles Williams, 78, and a 35-year-old unidentified man - remained in critical condition Saturday at Deaconess Medical Center. Vita Williams, 69, was in stable condition at Sacred Heart Medical Center.

All 174 hotel units are equipped with a heat sensor that’s connected to a building-wide fire alarm, said a hotel employee who works at the front desk.

Smoke detectors also have been installed in the hallways, he said.

But not all the rooms have a smoke detector, residents say.

Robert Johnson, a resident who lives two doors away from where the fire started, heard only the fire alarm, he said. His own room isn’t equipped with a smoke detector, he said.

“At first I thought it was a false alarm,” said Johnson, one of eight residents who spent Friday night at the American Red Cross shelter in the basement of the First Baptist Church downtown. “But I smelled the smoke when I went to the door so I left.”

The fire alarm, which first rang at 2:38 p.m. Friday, stopped ringing for about 30 seconds, he recalled. Then it rang again and didn’t stop.

Johnson, who forgot to put his boots on, took only his key before leaving the room. He left the building using the fire escape ladder.

Like Johnson, many thought the fire wasn’t real because of three false alarms last month. The alarm systems at older hotels such as the Otis usually aren’t as sophisticated as the ones in newer buildings, Miller said. It’s also not unusual for the fire department to respond to false alarms in such conditions, he said.

But when an alarm sounds, residents should always leave, he said.

“There’s this tendency to wait and see rather than evacuate,” he said. “But that can mean the difference between injury and death.”

Meanwhile, 20 people who live on the fifth floor won’t be able to return until later this week because of the damage in several rooms and the hallway. Firefighters also were forced to drill a hole through the roof in one of the rooms in order to get at the fire, Johnson said.

Most displaced residents have stayed with friends in the area. About six will stay at a local hotel, said Red Cross volunteer Jan Kinsella.

Johnson, who was allowed to briefly return to his room Friday night to pick up his toothbrush and other personal items, said his place was in good shape but there was no electricity in the hallway.

“I just feel lucky,” he said. “If this had happened at night, a lot of people would have gone back to sleep.”

, DataTimes