Chinatown Seniors Learn Fire Safety
By Thomas Lee

“Duck, cover, and roll.” “Check the door for heat.” These are actions many of today’s elementary school children are taught to perform in case of fire. But for many of San Francisco Chinatown’s elderly living in Single Room Occupancy (SRO) residential hotels, fire safety instruction is not a resource readily available to them. That is something the Chinese Progressive Association is striving to change. Through a fire safety education program aimed at teaching Chinatown tenants fire prevention, the association hopes to raise awareness of the dangers of living in SROs.

“Since 1998, there has been an epidemic of fires, especially in residential hotels, causing thousands of people to be displaced,” said Gordon Mar, executive director of the Chinese Progressive Association. “There are a lot of hazards in these hotels because they’re really crowded and people share the kitchens and bathrooms.”

The Chinese Progressive Association modeled the fire prevention program after a similar successful pilot program in the Mission district. Currently, though, the Chinatown program has no funding and the Mission district program may be cut by the Department of Public Health. Consequently, the Chinatown program has consisted of only one fire prevention workshop and two building inspections.

“We’re going to advocate for funding at the board of supervisors. The city needs to do a comprehensive program for each of its districts, especially Chinatown because it has the largest number of residential hotels [in the city],” stated Mar. “Hopefully with funding, we can work with the fire department and the Department of Public Health to develop an extensive fire prevention program.”

With funding, the fire department could do inspections for the entire Chinatown, a high risk for fires in San Francisco, said fire inspector Kaan Chin, who recently inspected two Chinatown SROs as part of the program.

“We would also like to replicate these safety workshops in all Chinatown residential hotels to make sure all tenants know the locations of fire extinguishers and how to use the fire escapes,” Chin said.

Single Room Occupancy hotels are a common sight in Chinatown. Each residence consists of one small room with enough space for a bed and minimal furniture. The tenants share communal bathrooms located on each floor as well as common kitchens. Because of the poor conditions of many SROs, many residents use heaters to keep warm at night while they sleep—one of the common causes of fire.

The close proximity of people co-habitating together in SROs is another hazard. “The rooms are designed for one person but it’s not uncommon for a family of five to be living in one room,” said Chin.

Because of a recent string of small fires in Chinatown, mostly contained to one room, tenants are eager to learn about fire prevention. “There is an opportunity to do [the program] here because there was a fire recently [in January],” Mar said. “The residents have a high interest to learn about fire safety because of the recent incident. They are concerned for their safety.”

According to a 1997 survey, 85 percent of all San Francisco SROs had one fire violation and 60 percent had more than one. Common code violations are peeling paint, leaking ceilings, and non-working smoke alarms and fire extinguishers. With the program’s building inspections, Mar hopes to eliminate these violations. “Besides educating tenants, we want to make sure property owners are up to code on all their buildings,” he said.

Mar believes that with the city’s help, the program can create a safer environment for the elderly of Chinatown. “We feel the city and the community really need to be more proactive to prevent these fires from happening, especially considering the high proportion of elderly living in the area,” he said.