San Antonio City Council approves measure to retrofit all high-rise buildings with sprinklers

The San Antonio City Council unanimously approved a measure that will require the owners of all high rise buildings in the city to retrofit the buildings with fire suppression sprinkler systems.

"Within the state there have been 114 deaths in multi-family units from 2002 to 2013," Fire Chief Charles Hood told News Radio 1200 WOAI. "There have been no deaths in sprinklered buildings."

The measure is a direct response to the fire at the Wedgewood Senior Living high rise in Castle Hills, Texas, in December where six people died and 20 were hurt.  Hood said many of the victims got trapped in smoky hallways and in his opinion would have survived had sprinkler systems been in place.

The high rise buildings, about 35 of them in the city, will have 12 years to come into compliance with the law, to enable them to spread out the significant cose of the retrofit.