What happened at the UC Berkeley fraternity house in 1990?

On 8 September 1990 a fire broke out at the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity house at the University of California (UC) Berkeley.

The president of Sigma house was parking his car when a friend noticed flames emitting from the property. He ran to the house and alerted the occupants by banging on the doors and called the fire department.

As he raced through the house smoke and heat intensity increased and, in order to save his own life, he jumped from a patio onto a roof and then onto the ground below.

How did the UC Berkeley fraternity house fire start?

The fire started by a couch igniting in the communal area by a butane cigarette lighter.

The building was a 33-year old timber frame construction with wooden panelling on exits and staircases, with the exception of two areas which had solid core wood doors.

The doors separated the bedrooms from communal areas, however it was common practice for these doors to be wedged open, while others had their closing devices removed. This along with limited fire detection, alarms and firefighting equipment made it impossible for any early warning or safe path from the building.

It took just seven minutes for the fire department to arrive - firefighters extinguished the flames room by room. Three hours later the fire was declared under control. A search for the missing people continued for 11 hours - three students tragically lost their lives.

What can the industry learn from the UC Berkeley fraternity house fire?

Analysis of the fire spread concluded that the fire spread rapidly from the couch to the mahogany planking. Within five minutes a flashover had occurred, consuming all combustibles within the room.

The solid panel doors maintained integrity throughout most of the incident.

An additional concern for firefighters was the building boundary separation to neighbouring properties. Upon arrival flames were venting out of the living room to adjacent apartments, which did ignite the exterior of that building.

This hampered operations for several minutes as firefighters concentrated efforts on the exposed building first. Analysis of the building and life safety codes followed, finding many breaches of code compliance.