High Rise Safety in Chicago

In 2004, the City of Chicago instituted a number of fire safety reforms for high rise buildings in the wake of a tragic fire that killed six people in a Cook County Administration Building located at 69 West Washington.  Clifford Law Offices represented a number of the victims and their families who suffered loss in that tragedy that will not be forgotten.

According to a Jan. 24, 2012 Chicago Tribune article “[o]f the roughly 700 residential high-rises required to beef up fire safety measures as required under [the] 2004 ordinance, 369 still haven't submitted plans that meet city approval let alone made the necessary improvements . . . .“

A fired that killed a resident earlier this month occurred in a high-rise building that reportedly had not yet received the city’s approval for its fire safety improvement plan.  The victim of that fire reportedly perished from smoke inhalation after trying to take an elevator to her apartment unaware of the fire on her floor.  According to reports, no alarms were sounding to warn her of the fire above.

The city’s fire ordinance reportedly does not require buildings constructed before 1975 to install sprinklers and critics say that it does not ensure resident's safety.

The Tribune article says “[i]n the eight years since the ordinance was enacted, only 14 residential high-rises have completed the stricter upgrades called for by the city, the records show. The city has approved the plans of another 309 residential high-rises but hasn't yet signed off on the work. Most of the rest still need to resubmit their new plans and win city approval.”

Last month the City Council reportedly extended the deadline for compliance with the fire safety reforms by three years from the original date of Jan. 1, 2012.

The full article can be read here.

Rescue Efforts Continue in Italian Cruise Ship Wreck

According to the BBC, "[r]escue efforts have resumed aboard the wrecked Italian cruise ship, Costa Concordia, off the coast of Tuscany.”  The BBC went on to report that “Operations were suspended on Wednesday as the vessel shifted its position. More than 20 people are still missing."

On Friday, the Costa Concordia ran into rocks while carrying about 4,200 passengers and crew and subsequently rolled over to its starboard side.  There are currently 11 confirmed dead.

Accusations of manslaughter and abandoning the ship have led to the ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, being placed on house arrest in Italy.  According to British newspaper, the Guardian, Schettino claimed that he “slipped and tripped into a lifeboat while helping passengers leave the stricken vessel."

Costa Concordia Details Following the Cruise Ship Disaster

The ship, Costa Concordia, at the center of the disaster that took place off the west coast of Italy near Giglio island was built in Italy and is six years old.

When christened in 2006, the ship was reportedly believed to be the largest cruise ship flying the Italian flag.  The Costa Concordia weighs 114,000 gross tons, is 952 ft. long, and can travel up to 19.6 knots.  The ship has 1,500 cabins, a two-level, 65,000 sq. ft. fitness center and five swimming pools along with 13 bars, five restaurants and a casino.

According to reports, nearly 4,200 people were on board the ship when it ran aground.  The majority of those passengers were reported to be Italians, with some additional French and German citizens. Some reports have also said a group of 32 Peruvians and 53 Brazilians were also on Costa Concordia.  The U.S. State Department estimated that 126 Americans were on the cruise ship as well.

To date, 11 people have died in the accident, and more than 20 are still unaccounted for.

Tragedy Worsens at Italian Cruise Ship Disaster

The death toll rises to 11 as rescuers blasted a hole in the hull of the cruise liner in an attempt to find 29 missing people aboard the Coasta Concordia that ran aground Friday night off the Tuscan coast of Italy.  Italian naval divers instead found five more people who had died in the tragic wreck.

The cause of this terrible tragedy is focusing on the ship’s captain, Francesco Schettino, who is being investigated whether he abandoned ship before all passengers were evacuated from the cruise liner.  NBC News is reporting that Schettino has had previous problems with not following company policy and disobeying coast guard orders.

A world is praying that there is still hope the missing are surviving in air pockets throughout the ship.

   

Death Toll Reaches Five in Italy Cruise Ship Disaster

At least five people now have been declared dead in the Italian cruise ship disaster after search crews on Sunday found two elderly men in the submerged section of the Costa Condordia, according to media reports.

The huge cruise ship ran aground off the northern Italian coast late Friday. Already two French passengers and a Peruvian crew member were found dead after they apparently jumped into the cold Mediterranean water.

The number of those missing on Sunday was listed as 15, including six crew members and 11 passengers. At least 30 passengers sustained injuries.

Italian authorities have launched an investigation into how the 114,500-ton ship apparently hit a reef and capsized so close to the coast.

More than 4,000 people were aboard the cruise ship that is owned by the large Carnival cruise line, based in America. The U.S. State Department said that 125 Americans were aboard the ship.

Italy Cruise Ship Disaster

A cruise ship carrying more than 4,200 passengers ran aground off the Tuscan Island of Giglio, leaving at least three dead and another 40 people unaccounted for.

Cruise ship goers had just been served the first course of dinner late Friday when the luxury liner, Costa Concordia, flipped on its side with a 160-foot gash in its hull. A night of chaos followed.

Witnesses told reporters they were terrified and compared the scene to the "Titanic." Some jumped in the water and swam ashore. Others waited in the water till helicopters rescued them. Rescuers pulled others from the lopsided ship that was half underwater.

Associated Press reported that the Coast Guard was bringing in a specialized search team to find those who could still not be located.

The captain of the ship is under investigation on manslaughter allegations, abandoning ship before all others and causing a shipwreck. Some passengers told reporters that crew members told them to stay on the boat despite it being perilously on its side. Witnesses said that rescue boats were not readily available and that they never went through any rescue training prior to the tragedy.

Costa Crociera SpA is owned by the U.S.-based cruise line Carnival Corp.

Chicago Woman Dies in Elevator in Tragic High-Rise Fire

A 32-year-old woman died at her Lakeview apartment when the elevator doors opened on the 12th floor to a raging fire Sunday (Jan. 8, 2012).

Officials report that Shantel McCoy, who had moved to Chicago from Philadelphia a year ago, was overcome by smoke and noxious gases from a fire in another apartment that had poured into the hallway heating it to more than 1,500 degrees.  Because the 52-year-old building at 3130 N. Lake Shore Dr. was not equipped with a sprinkler system, the elevators continued to operate.  The law in Chicago provides for that for buildings built after 1975 elevators recall automatically to the first floor and can’t be used until firemen arrive.

Firefighters reportedly found the unsuspecting young woman, who was bringing in carry out food, overcome with smoke in the elevator around 2 a.m.  She was pronounced dead of smoke inhalation at St. Joseph Hospital, according to officials. 

Clifford Law Offices has represented the families of many victims of high rise fires.  In 1987, Nancy Clay died in a high rise blaze when she worked overnight and firemen were unable to locate her.  Laws were changed.

More recently, the 2003 blaze at the Cook County Administration Building left six dead and dozens more injured.  Laws were changed again that were to take effect this month that upgraded fire safety measurers for older residential high-rise buildings but a recently passed amendment extended the deadline until January 2015 for compliance, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Nine others were injured in Sunday’s Lake Shore Drive blaze, including two firefighters.  Officials are investigating why the door to the apartment where the blaze started didn’t close automatically to prevent fires from spreading, according to media reports.

   

Chicago Woman Dies in Tragic Montana Bus Crash

On Sunday morning (Jan. 8, 2012), a bus crash in western Montana resulted in 32 injuries and the deaths of two people, including a 60-year-old Chicago woman.

The woman, Fatimah Amatullah of the 7200 block of South Shore Drive, was traveling to visit relatives in Seattle when the bus crashed on an icy Interstate 90 between a stop in Billings en route to Missoula.

According to Jason Johnson of the Missoula County sheriff’s office, Amatullah was one of four people trapped underneath the bus after it slid off the highway.

The other person who died, Robert Lange, of Kalispell, Montana, was also trapped underneath the bus.

The bus was 10 minutes from its destination in Missoula when the accident occurred, according to Johnson.

The Missoulian newspaper in Missoula reported Montana Highway Patrol Sgt. Scott Hoffman as saying, "In 16 years I haven't seen anything like this. ... So many people laying on the ground with injuries, writhing in pain. It was a terrible scene."