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by Kaponda
The faint sounds, like a wisp of terror, slashed
through the tranquillity of the night. My eyes opened
to the constricted area around my bed as currents of
toxins passed through my throat. The wooden interior
of the walls permitted the reek of death to overwhelm
the entire hotel room.
I was dressed before my feet had touched the floor in
my frantic rush to determine the reason for the
interruption of my sleep. As I reached for the light, I
was turned around by the plume of smoke that had
invaded the fourth floor of the Baldwin Hotel from
the adjoining Sixth Street structure, the Delta Hotel.
It appeared as though I had been the very last person
to escape the flaming disaster on that terrible night in
April of Œ97. The blaze of amber soared high over
the ledge of the Delta Hotel. Its insatiable energy
devoured the entire Delta Hotel and part of the
Baldwin Hotel. The Delta Hotel was destroyed. Its
rooms are among the 600 other rooms in San
Francisco that have been taken off the market in the
last 10 years. Out of the Delta fire was borne the
Mission SRO Collaborative.
On Thursday, March 30, 2000, the Mission SRO
Collaborative held a Fire Prevention Workshop at the
South of Market Recreation Center. The workshop
brought together the fire inspector, Patrick Stranahan,
San Francisco Fire Department, and single room
occupancy tenants (hereinafter, "SRO"), along with
other housing advocates. The spacious meeting hall at
the South of Market Recreation Center was populated
with tenants from hotels of North and South of
Market Street.
Before Inspector Stranahan made his lengthy presentation,
I asked him what is the Fire Department doing to prevent
future disasters to low-income hotels in San Francisco? He
stated that the "San Francisco Fire Department is
aggressively enforcing all codes and also educating
residents on fire prevention." "Furthermore," added
Inspector Stranahan, "the Fire Department has a great
relationship with residents of SRO's."
Emanuel Smith of Mission SRO Collaborative did not
seem that optimistic during our interview, however. Mr.
Smith admitted to me, confidentially, that the City is
"Ill-prepared for SRO fires." When I had heard some of
the questions put to Inspector Stranahan and had listened to
his responses; and after I had determined that this meeting
was convened due to a fire at the Baldwin Hotel only three
weeks ago, I began to understand why Emanuel had
concluded that the San Francisco Fire Department has no
game plan for SRO fires.
As Nick Patel, one of the owners and operators of SRO
hotels in San Francisco, and relatives looked on from the
back of the hall, Inspector Stranahan was responding to a
question concerning construction and combustibles in fire
escape areas. A tenant stated that he had called the fire
department and was told he has to identify himself or no
one will come out to inspect the area. Inspector Stranahan
responded by saying that there are, "Only 30 fire
inspectors covering San Francisco." That is not an
adequate amount, according to him. He noted that Los
Angeles has 300 fire inspectors.
I was further convinced that the City is not prepared to
handle SRO fires when a tenant complained that while he
was at work his room door on the third floor had been
kicked in during a recent fire, yet the fire had occurred on
the second floor. The explanation given by Inspector
Stranahan was reasonable. That is that the San Francisco
Fire Department wanted to make sure that he was not in
there and that the fire did not spread. However, the
tenant's door remained unlocked with all his personal
belongings unattended. Clearly, this constitutes a lack of
communication between members of the fire department
and management. | 
