The 10 boarding rooms destroyed in a five-alarm fire Thursday night in downtown Renton each had smoke alarms, but the nearly 90-year-old building had no sprinklers or a fire-alarm system (Photos).

Typically, buildings of that age, and even newer, don’t have such modern fire-suppression systems and warnings, which weren’t required by building codes when the buildings were constructed.

The heavily damaged two-story building at 232 Wells Ave. S. was built in 1921, according to King County property records. The building is owned by Robert Delancey and is valued for property-tax purposes in 2009 at $435,500, including the land, according to King County.

The building was not insured; according to building manager Roy Beeler, it’s going to be torn down. Remodeling would require that the building be brought up to modern fire and building codes.

Room 9, where the fire started, had a working alarm when the tenant moved in six years ago, Beeler said Monday. But, Beeler said he didn’t hear the alarm when he briefly went inside the room to investigate why smoke was coming under the front door.

The tenant was at dinner when the fire started, caused by overheated electrical outlets.

It wasn’t smoke alarms that brought fire inspectors to the building just a few hours before the fire was called in to 911 at about 7 p.m. Thursday.

The rooming house is entered through a stairway off Wells Avenue; there is an interior stairway in the back of the building that acts as a secondary way to escape the building, especially in a fire.

City of Renton fire officials have been concerned because the escape route leads to the front door of A-1 Vacuum and Locksmith and eventually Wells Avenue.

However, the front door was secured with multiple locks, according to the city’s lead fire inspector, Ted Hickey. The owners agreed to install a manual thumb screw lock on the door that someone simply turns to open the door, without needing a key.

The inspectors were there Thursday to make sure that tenants could get out of the building using the back stairway in case of fire.

“They complied with everything the city asked them to do,” said Hickey of the building owner.

That escape route wasn’t needed. The tenants in the building at the time escaped through the main front entrance, except for one who was rescued by ladder from one of the front windows by arriving Renton fire crews.

According to Beeler, the rooms weren’t inspected for smoke alarms on Thursday, which wasn’t the purpose of the city’s visit. It’s the tenant’s responsibility to maintain the smoke alarms, including installing fresh batteries, he said.

Beeler said tenants are not allowed to smoke in their rooms. And, he said, if they do smoke, they will sometimes remove the batteries from the smoke alarm.

Hickey said Renton isn’t alone in dealing with aging buildings that don’t meet modern safety standards.

“They are as safe as they can be,” he said of the buildings. “We can’t make them (the owners) comply with every regulation.”

A secondary exit and a smoke alarm is required, however.

The seven tenants will move into a building Delancey owns just around the corner at 824 Third Ave. that has 22 rooms on the second floor and retail space on the street level that has been vacant for more than a decade.

This building is valued at just over $1 million, including land, for property-tax purposes, according to King County. It was built in 1910, according to the county.

One of the businesses in the Wells Avenue building, the Comic Den, is moving into half of the vacant retail space this week.

There’s an indication that Delancey plans to insure his building on Third Avenue, according to Beeler.

The Third Avenue building has a fire-alarm system, with a battery backup, according to Beeler. It has an exterior fire escape on the outside of the building, next to Wells Avenue.

The fire escape will undergo a routine inspection, done every five years, in the next few weeks, according to city fire officials.