The Concept of Fire Protection Systems - Term Paper Example

While the tragic nature of the MGM Grand Fire cannot be downplayed, it served as a silver lining behind the dark cloud of the accident. Particularly, the MGM Grand Fire accident helped people grasp the danger of smoke inhalation as something as dangerous as the actual flames, if not more. This is because, as many as seventy-five died from carbon dioxide poisoning and smoke inhalation.

Before the MGM Grand Fire accident, it was required that all commercial buildings should have fire sprinklers installed. For this reason, the constructor, Orvin Engineering Company, recommended to MGM Grand that it have fire sprinklers so that MGM Grand should even assume liability for the unsprinkled areas within the building. Nevertheless, the MGM Grand Chairman, Fred Benninger resisted the pressure to install the fire sprinklers.

It was also required that commercial buildings such as the MGM Grand Hotel have to build code enforcement procedures throughout the building process. For this reason, the County Office of Building and Safety sought to ensure that a system of onsite resident inspectors was used after being hired by the Clerk of the County Office of Building and Safety. The County Office of Building and Safety did this instead of the fire department simply because, at the time, the fire department was not endowed with the authority to enforce building authority. This is why fire protection and life safety in the MGM Grand Building became so peripheral that MGM Grand did not install fire sprinklers.