1983 — Aug 31, fire, mentally handicapped home dorm., Annandale Village, Suwanee, GA-8

— 8  Associated Press. “8 killed in Blaze at Mental Facility.” New York Times, 9-1-1983.

— 8  Setser. “Through the cracks: Failures in the implementation of fire and life safety…” p. 253.

Narrative Information

Sep 1, AP: “Suwanee, Ga., Aug. 31 — A fire that quickly spread through a rustic cottage-style dormitory at a rural home for the mentally handicapped killed eight people today and injured two, the authorities said. The fire, traced to faulty electrical wiring, broke out between 1:30 A.M. and 2 A.M. in one of four dormitories at Annandale Village, a private center on 100 wooded acres about 35 miles northeast of Atlanta. Sixteen residents and four staff members were sleeping in the one-story building at the time….investigators had determined that aluminum wiring, installed in 1974, caused the fire. The wiring met the county’s fire code then, but the code has been changed to require copper wiring.” (AP. “8 killed in Blaze at Mental Facility.” New York Times, 9-1-1983.)

Sources

Associated Press. “8 killed in Blaze at Mental Facility.” New York Times, 9-1-1983. Accessed 9-20-2015 at: http://www.nytimes.com/1983/09/01/us/8-killed-in-blaze-at-mental-facility.html

Setser, Katherine S. “Through the cracks: Failures in the implementation of fire and life safety standards in the selection, specification, and installation of interior content.” Chapter 7 in: The State of the Interior Design Profession, Caren S. Martin and Denise A. Guerin (eds.), Fairchild Publications, Inc., 2010, pp. 251-263. Accessed 9-20-2015 at: http://njcidl.org/MG_Setser.pdf