São Paulo, Brazil: Downtown buildings have a high fire risk

Old buildings with limitations for structural renovations, lack of maintenance of electrical installations, and improper use of real estate – stores that become warehouses -, in addition to the storage of flammable materials, make buildings in the central region of São Paulo more susceptible to fires, such as the one this week in the area of Rua 25 de Março.

“It is possible to affirm with all the letters that there is a risk of fire in a great part of the commercial and residential buildings in the central region of the city,” says Roberto Racanicchi, assistant coordinator of the Specialized Chamber of Civil Engineering of the Regional Council of Engineering and Agronomy of the State of São Paulo (Crea-SP).

“There is no doubt that there is a risk of fire starting,” agrees Antonio Fernando Berto, a researcher from the Institute for Technological Research (IPT).

Great fires in the central region are still in the memory of Paulistanos. The Joelma Building was the site of a tragedy in the Praça da Bandeira Building in 1974. One hundred eighty-seven people died, and more than 300 were injured.

The rescue mobilized 1,500 men. The fire happened less than two years after another major fire in the Andraus Building on Avenida São João. On that occasion, 16 people died, and 320 were injured. An advertising light fixture was the start of the fire.

They are old buildings with no structural characteristics in line with current safety requirements. One of them is the presence of floors between floors with only 20 cm of protection. More modern buildings have a greater separation of at least one meter to prevent fire from passing from one floor to the other.

Berto notes that there was practically no division between floors in the fire at 78 Comendador Abdo Schahim Street.

Modernizing these buildings is difficult because there is little physical space for structural reforms. For example, it is impossible to demolish a stairway without compromising the neighboring building.

Engineers told Estadão about a recent episode in the expansion of a building on Rua 7 de Abril. Getting in with the concrete truck to do the work was impossible. The solution was to demolish a wall to allow the vehicle to enter.

The old buildings also do not have all the safety items required by current projects, such as ventilation ducts, wider fire ladders, or fire doors.

BUILDINGS WITH IRREGULAR DOCUMENTATION

Because of these characteristics, the buildings have difficulty obtaining the Fire Department Inspection Certificate (AVCB), a document that certifies the building’s operation within the safety conditions against fire and panic.

In this context, the State Public Prosecutor’s Office has given a 30-day deadline for the Fire Department to explain whether it has inspected the buildings affected by the fire and the surrounding properties in the 25 de Março region for the existence of an AVCB.

The letter is related to a civil inquiry opened in 2019 to investigate another fire in a three-story commercial building on Rua Cavalheiro Basílio Jafet at the corner with Rua Jorge Azem, close to Rua 25 de Março. There were no victims.

The investigation, called a civil structural inquiry, is still in progress and intends to make a broader investigation of the public policy on fire prevention and combat.

The problem does not only happen in the capital, says the MP. About 5% of the municipalities in São Paulo have most of their buildings regularized. Still, according to the agency, 90% of the fires occur in irregular buildings.

THE RISK OF STORING FLAMMABLE MATERIALS

The storage of flammable materials makes the situation even more complex. Last week, the building “Comércio e Indústria” had several floors used for metal, plastic, and paper storage.

Berto says that the large presence of flammable materials facilitates the spread of the fire. “From an outbreak, it is very easy for the fire to grow in a disorganized occupation, far from what would be adequate for fire safety,” he says.

Estadão found out that the owners of the building were changing the license of the property from “open stores and offices” to “merchandise warehouses” when the beginning of the pandemic interrupted the bureaucratic procedures.

Here, Racanicchi stresses the importance of the public authorities’ inspection to verify that the use and occupation of the enterprises are in accordance with the license and operation.

LACK OF ELECTRICAL MAINTENANCE, ONE OF THE VILLAINS

Another risk factor is the lack of maintenance of the internal electrical installations of residential and commercial condominiums. Valdir Pignatto, professor at the Escola Politécnica da USP, explains that most fires in Brazil are caused by electrical installations, such as bare wires and old wiring without maintenance.

The conductors lose their energy-carrying properties with time, heat up, and catch fire. “We have a problem, which is the lack of identification of the cause of the fire. It is important. How will we attack a problem if we don’t know exactly what the cause is?” he questions.

Marcelo Lima, general director of the Instituto Sprinkler Brasil, a non-profit organization that disseminates the use of sprinklers in the country, adopts similar reasoning.

“Electrical installations are a huge source of fires, but sometimes their guilt is overestimated due to the difficulty of investigating and discovering the real cause of a fire,” he says.

Through the daily monitoring of fire news in Brazil, the Institute registered 999 occurrences of structural fires from January to June this year.

The lack of maintenance is related to cultural aspects. The engineer Rafael Timerman argues: “The people who run the business or residential condominiums have a culture of lack of maintenance. It is not a priority of downtown São Paulo. There needs to be an awareness that it is cheaper to act in a preventive way than in a corrective and emergency way,” warns the director of the São Paulo Engineering Institute.

The diagnosis is not recent. Four years ago, on the eve of the 2018 fire, a decree by then governor Marcio França instituted a fire safety regulation in the state. Among the objectives was to “foster the development of a fire safety and prevention culture.”

THE FIRE DEPARTMENT SAYS TO CARRY OUT INSPECTIONS

The São Paulo City Hall informs that the issue and inspection of the AVCB are the responsibility of the São Paulo State Fire Department, but to speed up the inspection of the buildings of the capital, the city administration will be able to contribute to the requirement of the AVCB presentation for the liberation of functioning of the enterprises and businesses in the city.

The Military Police Fire Department of the State of São Paulo (CBPMESP) informs that the Inspection Plan for buildings and risk areas follows a schedule defined based on the methodology and planning of the Fire Safety Service according to a prioritization table, consolidated in a Matrix for Occupation Inspection (MFO) that is based on a ranking of the risks involved and the Pareto Method quality tool.

Since 2019, 37727 inspections have been carried out. In 2022 alone, 9387 inspections were made, corresponding to one inspection every 30 minutes. Of these 37727 inspections, CBPMESP applied R$2.3 million (US$422,000) in fines.

CBPMESP promotes inspection actions in all buildings, but it is essential to remember that proper behavior, periodic maintenance of safety measures, and the correct use of the building are as important as seeking a license.

With information from Estadão