The woman killed in a high-rise fire in Silver Spring, Maryland, over the weekend worked for D.C.-based think tank Aspen Institute and was a graduate of Georgetown University.
Melanie Diaz loved helping others. Her father said the 25-year-old had so much love to give and was passionate about taking care of the environment.
“My daughter was a lovely person,” Cesar Diaz said. “Everybody loved her. She gave you a lot of love, so that’s why, maybe, God said, we need you here.”
Her father says Melanie was the type of person who would always stop what she was doing to help others. In her job at the Aspen Institute, she focused on ways to fight climate change because she wanted to make the world a better place.
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“She was an angel, you know, an angel. And, well, you know, God asked for her, was her time, and we had to respect that,” her father said.
Cesar said he was appalled to learn the building did not have in-unit sprinkler systems.
“In my opinion, right now, that building is still unsafe for people living there,” he said.
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But that’s not uncommon. Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Chief Scott Goldstein estimates about 80 apartment buildings in the county don’t have sprinkler systems.
The Arrive Silver Spring Complex was built before the sprinkler requirement. State code mandates high-rises need to have a sprinkler system in place, but they have until 2033 to do so.
“It’s clear that the way that something like this could be avoided in the future is if all high-rise buildings have sprinklers, so that’s, that part is pretty clear,” said Maryland Del. Lorig Charkoudian, D-District 20.
She said she’s drafting legislation to make the sprinkler requirement met much sooner.
“When you’re talking about human life, I think that you know we have to really push hard and find the path forward,” she said.
