Series fires up local pols

By: Joe Strupp Series fires up local pols
'Call' for action on sprinklers sparks new laws


For every reporter who ever thought his or her work was having no real impact, there is Elliot Grossman.
Grossman, a nine-year staff writer at the The Morning Call in Allentown, Pa., says he simply wanted more high-rise buildings to be safer when he wrote a two-day series last fall on the lack of sprinklers in area buildings and the dangers of living and working in buildings without sprinklers.
What he eventually got was a string of new and proposed laws at both the state and local levels that force landlords to install sprinklers and makes it easier to finance such installations.
"I wasn't trying to get any laws passed; I was just trying to get sprinklers installed," says Grossman, 42, who has spent the past few weeks reporting on how his series is changing local legislation. "But I am happy and excited that my work has led to increased public safety."
In just the past few weeks, Grossman's series has resulted in:
?The Allentown City Council unanimously adopting legislation April 21 requiring all buildings in the city that are 75 feet or taller to install sprinklers within six years, a move that will affect at least 10 high-rises. State law currently requires such sprinklers only in new buildings.
?Bethlehem, Pa., city officials considering a similar law for high-rises in their city.
?State sen. Charles Dent, R-Lehigh, introducing a bill on April 22 that would provide $20 million in low-cost loans to building owners statewide who wish to install new sprinklers.
"I think the reporter really brought this issue to the attention of a lot of people," says Allentown councilman Ernest Toth, a 14-year councilman and a former fire chief who introduced the city legislation following the series. "We have been after the sprinklers for a long time, but it had always been a money thing. But no one objected to it this time."
Grossman's series, which ran Oct. 11-12, 1998, in the 178,000-circulation newspaper, was a textbook example of localizing a safety issue to area readers, using specific data to support the issue, and providing anecdotal examples for backup.
The series, entitled "High-Rise Hazards," included a main story focused on past fires that had occurred in Pennsylvania high-rise buildings without sprinklers, including a 1989 hotel blaze in nearby Bethlehem that killed five people. The stories highlighted local buildings that had few or no sprinklers, cited the limited state and local sprinkler laws, discussed costs of installing such devices, and included a chart comparing the property damage costs, deaths, and injuries from fires that occurred in sprinkler-equipped buildings and those without sprinklers.
The series also listed 30 well-known, high-rise buildings in The Morning Call readership area that had no sprinklers.
"It influenced my decision and got me a lot of calls from people in that area," says Dent, who was running for his current senate seat when the series ran. "I wouldn't have thought of [new sprinkler legislation] had it not been for those articles."
Morning Call assistant city editor Mary Ellen Alu says she did not expect the series to prompt so much legislative action. "I've learned in this business not to expect that kind of thing," says Alu. "It's very
encouraging."
Grossman, who normally covers federal courts and a general-assignment beat for the Times Mirror-owned publication, says he came up with the idea for a series after receiving a tip about a local senior-citizen apartment building that lacked sprinklers. He says his research showed that many local buildings were without sprinklers, prompting the idea for an in-depth series.
"I found that it was a real problem in major buildings," says Grossman, who won an award from the Pennsylvania Women's Press Association for the series. "I was hoping that people would think more about why sprinklers should be installed."
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?(copyright: Editor & Publisher May 22, 1999) [Caption]