First Interstate Tower fire


The First Interstate Tower fire was a high-rise fire that occurred on May 4, 1988, at the First Interstate Tower in Los Angeles, California, a 62-story, 860 foot skyscraper, then the tallest building in the city. The fire destroyed five floors of the building, injured 40 people, and caused the death of a maintenance worker, when the elevator he was riding opened onto the burning 12th floor.

Causes and results

The fire's origin has been attributed to overloading of the building's electrical system by reactive distortion of lighting circuit currents.
The fire was so severe because the building was not equipped with a sprinkler system, which was not required for office towers at the time construction was completed in 1973. Although a sprinkler system was 90% installed at the time of the fire, the system was inoperative, awaiting the installation of water flow alarms. The fire was eventually contained at 2:19 AM, and caused $50 million in damages.
According to the , unusually good application of fireproofing on support members was a significant mitigating factor. The fireproofing used to protected the steel was Monokote supplied by GCP Applied Technologies.
Repair work took four months. Because of the fire, Los Angeles building codes were changed, requiring all high-rises to be equipped with fire sprinklers. This modified a 1974 ordinance that only required new buildings to contain fire sprinkler systems.

Cultural references

The fire was dramatized in the 1991 telefilm, Fire: Trapped on the 37th Floor, starring Lee Majors, Lisa Hartman Black and Peter Scolari.