
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 18, 1990                   TAG: 9007180309
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Short

EMPIRE STATE BUILDING MANAGEMENT CHARGED

A day after an office fire in the Empire State Building left 38 people injured, the Fire Department filed criminal charges against the management of the landmark skyscraper Tuesday, asserting that defects in the alarm system had slowed the response of firefighters.

A department spokesman, Assistant Fire Commissioner John Mulligan, said it was unclear how much time may have been lost as a result of defects in the alarm.

He said the matter was under investigation by the department's bureau of fire prevention.

The cause of the blaze, which began shortly before 6:30 p.m. Monday in an unoccupied suite of offices on the 51st floor of the 102-story Manhattan building on Fifth Avenue between 33rd and 34th Streets, remained under investigation, Fire Commissioner Carlos Rivera said Tuesday.

- The New York Times

by CNB