What happened at the John Sevier Retirement Centre fire on Christmas Eve 1989?

On 24 December 1989 at 5:10pm a fire broke out on the first and second floor of the 11 storey John Sevier Retirement Centre in Tennessee, USA.

The facility was of mixed use with businesses on the first floor and a 150-bed residential care home on the floors above. It was originally built as a hotel in 1924 with fire resistive construction walls.

In 1977 it was converted into a residential care facility using lightweight combustible materials. The conversion included fire detection and enclosed stairways, however, much of the work undertaken left many services and utilities which penetrate walls and floors unprotected as they were not fire stopped.

How did the John Sevier Retirement Centre fire start?

The fire is believed to have been caused by smoking materials. It started on the ground floor and spread to combustible materials in the ceiling, which caused smoke to spread through the building, filling every corridor and walkway. The fire was contained to the first and second floors.

Rescue operations concentrated on removing occupants from the hallways and corridors using extended ladders. Unfortunately they couldn’t rescue people fast enough - 16 occupants were overcome from smoke inhalation and tragically lost their lives. They were found at various locations throughout the facility.

What can the industry learn from the John Sevier Retirement Centre fire?

The following factors contributed to the loss of life and property:

• Rapid fire spread in a combustible concealed space
• Loss of compartmentation due to open doors, walls that did not extend slab to slab, and voids that were not sealed against smoke penetration
• Smoke spread into the high rise residential tower through various vertical openings
• The lack of automatic sprinkler protection

Investigators determined that the fire most likely began in the north east corner of the living room in apartment 102 - some of the furnishings contained a polyurethane foam covering.

The fire was fuelled by concealed construction materials from 1924 through all the void openings - its hidden spread meant that the detection system didn’t operate as they were not located in the room of origin or in the concealed spaces.