FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - An elderly man has died and his longtime roommate has been transported to the hospital after a fire ignited at a high-rise in Fort Lauderdale, officials said.
The fire broke out at the Ocean Summit Condominium along the 400 block of Galt Ocean Drive, early Friday morning.
According to Fort Lauderdale Fire Rescue, the ninth and 10th floors were evacuated.
A security guard placed the 911 call at around 1 a.m.
“As I came out the elevator on the ninth floor, I could smell smoke in the hallway, so I went down to 911 and I could see black residue on the door,” said the receptionist. “The fire department came, they went up there, they contained the fire, took one person to the hospital, and sorry, the other one didn’t make it.”
“Our units were here within six minutes,” said FLFR Battalion Chief Stephen Gollan.
By then, however, one of the two residents, a 93-year-old man, had already died. The other man, his roommate of over 20 years, was taken to the hospital.
“The gentleman that succumbed to his injuries was in his 90s, and the other gentleman that was transported to Broward Health for his injuries was in his 50s,” Gollan said. “Thankfully, in this, the fire was contained to that one apartment of origin but, it being unsprinkled, it has that possibility to spread across that entire floor.”
Unsprinkled means the unit does not have an interior sprinkler system.
“They would have had a better chance,” said Gollan.
Most of the older buildings in Fort Lauderdale don’t have a sprinkler system, but in existing state law says that they must be added by 2024.
“A lot of the older high-rises here are unsprinkled, which creates a very, very dangerous situation,” Gollan said.
A sprinkler system, firefighters said, perhaps could have saved this man.
“You could look at a sprinkler head as being a firefighter, in every 21 square feet of your house. So they’re spread out evenly, you know, spread out in the corridors,” said Fort Lauderdale Fire Marshal Jeff Lucas, “so, as soon as a sprinkler system detects heat, it goes off, starts putting water on the fire.”
Lucas said that the move to make sure that these older buildings have fire sprinkler systems really started around 2000. Although the date keeps getting pushed back by the Florida legislature in terms of when they must be required, now it looks like they have to be installed by Jan. 1, 2024.
The names of the victims will not been disclosed until next of kin have been notified.
Other residents of the high-rise said they weren’t aware there was a fire in the building.
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Copyright 2024 Sunbeam Television Corp. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.