Although a May 15 deadline is less than 30 days away, only about 20 building owners or managers have filed an "all hazard plan" with the city of Pittsburgh.
That means about 8 percent of the 250 buildings in the city whose owners or managers must file plans on how to evacuate their buildings in case of an emergency have done so, said Katherine Beahn, project manager for emergency operations in the mayor's office.
An all hazard plan is required for all structures seven stories or higher under a city ordinance (No. 29) passed last year.
The requirement covers not only office and industrial buildings but also hospitals, hotels, universities/colleges, apartments and any structure seven stories or higher, Beahn said. She expects practically all to meet the May 15 deadline.
"Seven stories is the maximum height that ladders of city fire trucks can reach, so there is a need for a plan to cover any emergency that requires a structure be vacated," she said.
Buildings that fail to meet the deadline face a $1,000 fine under the ordinance passed last year.
One requirement of each plan is that each building will exercise its evacuation plan on a semi-annual basis involving no less than 50 percent of the occupants, and, once every three years, a full evacuation.
Although the plan covers only buildings in the city, there are 23 such office and/or industrial buildings in Allegheny County outside the city and none in Westmoreland County, according to CoStar Realty of Baltimore, a provider of information services to the U.S. commercial real estate industry. CoStar does not include other types of buildings, such as hospitals, hotels, apartments and universities, in its database, so the total many be higher.
Raymond V. DeMichiei, operations supervisor at the city's Communications/Emergency Management office, said a cursory examination of plans already submitted showed "no glaring problems," but he planned a more thorough review of them soon. The city fire department also reviews the plan.
New Jersey-based Rugby Realty Co., owner of six buildings Downtown seven stories or higher, such as Gulf Tower, said each building currently has an emergency manual that meets most of the city's requirement.
"We have to provide some supplemental information, such as who on each floor will serve as a warden to insure personnel evacuate the building, and the only holdup on this information may come if the company doesn't supply that name to us in time for the filing," said Aaron Stauber, managing director.
For Downtown hotels, such as the Westin Convention Center Hotel, the problem of selecting a warden for each floor is somewhat difficult. To resolve the matter, hotels will probably select several staff members for each floor as the warden, due to changes in scheduling and off days.
That's basically the same policy at the Omni William Penn. Lesli Reynolds, general manager, said managers have been assigned to each of the hotel's 10 floors as wardens. "We had an emergency plan ready, previously approved by the fire marshal, and we only had to enhance it to meet the city's requirements, before submitting it recently," she said.
U.S. Steel Tower's comprehensive building plan that details all the building's systems has been on file with the city since 2000, but needs some formatting to include evacuation procedures, said Tom Harrington, the building's general manager for Winthrop Management.
Tom Yocco Sr., president of Penn Center Realty Services, a subsidiary of the Soffer Organization, is developing a plan for Quantum One, the new four-story office building in the SouthSide Works, even though it's not required. Penn Center Realty also has developed and submitted plans for structures owned or managed by NDC Management, such as Webster Hall in Oakland and the Kenmawr in Shadyside, both apartment buildings.
