Many across the United States and around the world mourn the recent loss of a giant in the world of fire and life safety. John Fenton “Sonny” Scarff III, who for decades impacted everything from firefighter safety to fireground operations, training, advancing the use of technology, and lodging fire safety, passed away on July 1, 2024, at age 88.
Following years of fire suppression work, he was selected by the late J.W. Marriott to be in charge of hotel fire safety for Marriott International in 1974. Immediately upon coming on board, Scarff began advancing the aggressive use of built-in fire protection, including leading the charge on installing sprinkler protection in all new Marriott hotels and senior living centers as well as retrofitting existing lodging properties in the United States and abroad. His contributions to lodging fire safety are legendary.
Early on, he faced opposition from developers, builders, and even some within the fire service community as well as some within allied disciplines relating to detection, suppression, and alarm professionals—particularly from those in the design community—for challenging the status quo. He quickly gained steadfast commitments from his superiors toward making residential construction as safe as possible although, at times, he had to do battle with those most closely associated with codes and standards when encountering obstacles to what made sense toward ensuring the best possible safe environment.
He led the way for use of more restrictive requirements than existed in building and fire codes at the time, ultimately having Marriott’s own standards, which drew from existing standards but which, in many cases, were more restrictive due to the residential nature of the lodging industry. His efforts also impacted other arenas like fire safety in one- and two-family dwellings.
Background
After a series of deadly hotel fires in the late ’70s and early ’80s in Nevada, New York, and elsewhere, J.W. Marriott came to Scarff, saying, “I never want to have to stand in front of the news media trying to explain questions about how a large number of people could die from fire in one of our hotels. Do whatever it takes to make them safe.”
In fact, those who worked for competing hoteliers would often say to him that they would give anything to have the organizational leadership commitment to fire and life safety that was the norm for Marriott properties. Over the years, there were those who did their best to “value engineer” to a lesser standard, but Scarff thwarted all those whose ideas may have sounded good on paper but didn’t account for the realities of living and working in buildings where people slept and went to events where massive crowds were in attendance.
He was unwavering in his commitment to smoke exhaust in public spaces (large ballrooms, pre-function areas, and public corridors), along with stairwell pressurization, which allowed for safe exiting during emergencies. When Scarff first joined Marriott, there were only 11 hotels. Today, that number exceeds 5,000.
“For those of us who worked for Sonny, there was never a bigger supporter,” wrote Stacy Welch, Scarff’s handpicked successor, who serves as vice president, fire life safety and security design for Marriott International. “He was a teacher, mentor, and his enthusiastic stories and exclamations were without parallel. Protecting people from fire was his mission and he defended it with an unrivaled passion.”
“For those of you who didn’t know Sonny, he started his career with Marriott in 1974 after his time in the fire department,” Welch continued. “Sonny worked for Marriott for 38 years and traveled the world as Marriott entered and grew the international hotel market. There is no other person who had a greater impact on hospitality fire protection than Sonny.” (Welch currently serves on the NFPA’s Board of Directors.)
Scarff had no problem taking on powerful interests who would challenge the use of quick-response sprinkler heads, plastic piping, or requirements for higher standards. This also included overseas, where things can sometimes be very different regarding construction, fire protection systems, inspections, and testing.
It’s hard to imagine, yet in some camps even today, these battles continue despite hundreds of thousands of examples where such made for easier installation, less cost, and decades of proven success. In no small way, the Hotel-Motel Fire Safety Act of 1990 is part of his lasting legacy.
How He Got His Start
Scarff began his involvement with the fire service and fire protection as a youngster with the Carroll Manor Volunteer Fire Department in Frederick County, Maryland, where he once served as ambulance captain. He began his career service with the Washington, DC, Fire Department, where he served on busy companies and also became a much-admired battalion chief’s aide in active firefighting battalions. He also filled in as the aide to higher-ranking chiefs, including the fire chief, before being asked to consider becoming the senior career fire officer with the Chillum-Adelphi Volunteer Fire Department (CAVFD), in Prince George’s County, Maryland.
His days as the company commander with the CAVFD remain legendary both for advanced operational capabilities as well as a host of related initiatives from training to taking advantage of new technologies, such as large-diameter supply hose and high-expansion foam decades before other fire departments nationally began to use these and other things he pioneered. During the early years of the evolving PGFD, he was often the “go-to” person for all manner of things including the hiring of the first minority firefighter in the county.
He “led from the front” and was always proud of the dozens of his people who went on to become regional and national leaders in fire safety. His former fire stations often had live-in students attending close by fire protection engineering (FPE) classes at the University of Maryland/College Park. He also employed FPE students to work for Marriott Fire Protection, many spending their entire work careers at Marriott.
His accomplishments in fire suppression were well documented from many emergency events in DC, PG, and neighboring Montgomery County. He spent years as a field instructor with the Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute (Fire Service Extension, during his time) at the University of Maryland and all during his years with Marriott jointly sponsored numerous live-burn test fires at a specially built residential prop at MFRI HQ. Marriott, MFRI, and the FPE program held dozens of well-attended events showcasing new technologies regarding residential fire protection.
See-for-Yourself Demonstrations
Scarff was widely admired for conducting numerous live-fire burn demonstrations to let people see for themselves what was already working in Marriott properties around the world. Certainly, the most famous such event happened in San Francisco, in 1983, when a former federal office building was about to be torn down to make room for a massive new Marriott hotel in the heart of the city.
Dubbed “Operation San Francisco,” it was an event that Marriott underwrote the expenses for that enabled more than 2,000 fire and building officials from across the country to observe first-hand a series of fires in simulated sprinkler-protected hotel rooms with amazing success. This followed a similar event a year earlier, dubbed “Operation Fort Lauderdale,” which likewise yielded many successes in dispelling unfounded myths regarding what could be done to ensure occupant and firefighter safety.
A Celebration of Life for Scarff is scheduled for August 3, 2024, at the Brunswick Volunteer Fire Company’s Social Hall in southern Frederick County, Maryland. His formal obituary can be found here.
Memorial contributions can be made in Scarff’s name to the Community Foundation of Frederick County, 312 E. Church St., Frederick, MD 21701: to be allocated for Fire Service Recruitment/Retention.
Photos courtesy of Marriott International.
