Eight Major S.F. Hotels Flunk Fire Checks
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SAN FRANCISCO — Half of the city’s 16 major downtown hotels flunked annual fire inspections because of serious safety failures, a state fire marshal reported.
Several posh hotels in the Union Square and Nob Hill areas failed to meet safety standards. Problems included locked exit doors, blocked corridors and stairwells and disabled fire alarm system.
“You can’t pass these things off as ‘minor, technical violations of the fire code,’ ” said David Walizer, assistant state fire marshal. “These are the kinds of things that are going to get people killed in a fire if they are left uncorrected.”
The hotels that failed their 1986 inspections include the Cathedral Hill Hotel, where two people were killed and three injured in a 1983 fire; the Clift; Meridien; St. Francis; San Franciscan; Ramada Renaissance; Huntington and Hilton.
San Francisco fire authorities said all have corrected their violations or have initiated an approved correction plan and are “reasonably safe.”
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