‘Born out of a tragic incident’: Maryland Gov. Wes Moore signs fire safety, prevention bill
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (DC News Now) — Cesar Augusto Diaz said that he still feels the agony of the loss of his daughter Melanie Diaz, who died during a high-rise apartment fire in Silver Spring last year.
The Diaz family pushed state officials to strengthen fire protection legislation which led to Gov. Wes Moore on Thursday signing the Melanie Diaz Fire Safety Act into law.
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The bill requires all high-rise apartments to have smoke detectors and for residents to be told by the owners that the building is or isn’t equipped with working sprinkler systems.
“I don’t want anybody to feel the same pain we feel,” said Cesar Augusto Diaz, whose daughter died in a stairwell of smoke inhalation in the high rise.
Melanie Diaz, 25, had just graduated from Georgetown University with a life ahead of her, family members said.
“You can replace a car, you can replace a house, but you can’t replace a life,” her father said.
The Arrive Silver Spring Apartments didn’t have a sprinkler system or working smoke detectors, according to authorities who investigated the Feb. 18, 2033 fire.
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Sen. William Smith,(D-Silver Spring) helped sponsor the bill.
The bill, he said, “was born out of a tragic incident.”
Smith said the bill also requires that a task force be created to study and make recommendations to call for better fire safety measures in the future such as trying to retrofit older high-rise buildings with sprinkler systems.
“What this bill does is pushes us closer to ensuring that every building in Maryland, every high rise building in Maryland, has a sprinkler system and has adequate fire safety protections,” Smith said.
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The Diaz family flew in from their home in Florida to witness the governor sign the legislation into law.
Melanie Diaz’s brother. Cesar Alejandro Diaz, said it’s been “very hard” for them.
“I’m hoping that through passing this bill and the actions that we continue to take in the future, we can find some sort of healing,” he said.
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