First Interstate Tower (1988), 62-floor steel building in Los Angeles on fire for at least 3 hours

First Interstate Tower fire Los AngelesIn May, 1988 the First Interstate Tower in Los Angeles, California burned for at least three (3) hours.

Construction of the 62-floor steel frame building was completed in 1973. The exterior was made of glass and aluminum.

At the time of the fire (1998) the building was not equipped with a working sprinkler system.  A system was in process of being installed but inoperative at the time of the fire.

After the fire, the building remained closed for several months while the structure was inspected.

The property loss was estimated at over $200 million, without taking into account the business interruption loss.

In spite of the total burnout of four and a half floors, there was no damage to the main structural members and only minor damage to one secondary beam and a small number of floor pans. Although there was concern for structural integrity during the incident, post fire analysis indicates that there was no danger of major or minor structural collapse. It was noted that quality control in the application of the sprayed-on fire protection was unusually good.

Read the official report here: United States Fire Administration (Investigated by: J. Gordon Routley)

The building still stands and is known today as the Aon Center (or United California Bank Building):

First Interstate Tower lis Angles fire rebuilt

World Trade Center, September 11, 2001:

South Tower:  collapsed at 9:59 a.m. after burning for approximately 56 minutes.

North Tower:  collapsed at 10:28 a.m. after burning for approximately 102 minutes.

Source – NIST NCSTAR 1-1 (2005), p. 34; pp. 45–46

World Trade Center 7 (47-floor steel building):  endured fire for almost seven hours, 10:28:22 a.m. until 5:20:52 p.m., and then collapsed.

Source – http://www.nist.gov/el/disasterstudies/wtc/faqs_wtc7.cfm

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3 Responses to First Interstate Tower (1988), 62-floor steel building in Los Angeles on fire for at least 3 hours

  1. [VIDEO] LAFD 1st Interstate Bank Fire, part one:

  2. [VIDEO] LAFD 1st Interstate Bank Fire, part two:

  3. The 1991 made-for-tv movie, Fire: Trapped on the 37th Floor, (starring Lee Majors, Lisa Hartman Black and Peter Scolari) was based on the First Interstate Tower fire:

    Fire: Trapped on the 37th Floor

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