No Sprinklers, No Alarm
IN JANUARY 2000 A DORMITORY fire at Seton Hall University killed three students and injured 58 others. What are the chances a similar tragedy could strike at Dartmouth?
"I feel absolutely secure," says Dean of Residential Life Martin Redman. "We have excellent fire-detection systems in place that would alert residents to any danger."
What the College doesn't have is a sprinkler system in every building. New Jersey fire officials concluded that more students might have survived the Seton Hall blaze if the dormitory had been fitted with sprinklers, which were not required by state law at the time. (After the fire, state legislators passed the Fire Safe Dorm Act, requiring public and private colleges to install sprinklers in all dorms within four years.) Sixteen of Dartmouth's 62 undergraduate residence buildings (including Greek and affinity houses) have partial or no sprinklers, which are not required by New Hampshire law. "A sprinkler system would provide more time to evacuate a facility—and we do want to install them— but the buildings are safe right now," says Redman.
The College has been working to install sprinklers in every dorm, at a cost of about $100,000 per building. Meanwhile, says Redman, existing earlydetection systems—heat and smoke detectors linked directly to the fire department—are adequate for the 1,500 students living in those residences.
Last summer the College added sprinklers and fire-escape routes to the Ripley/Woodward/Smith cluster. And plans are in place to renovate at least one dorm this summer. The rate of sprinkler installation is slowed by the lack of housing for displaced students and the lack of installers to do the job. "We'll all sleep better at night when it's done," says Woody Eckels, director of residential operations, "but nothing can be done to hurry it up short of closing the campus down." Or building new dorms—which the College recently announced it will do in the next couple of years. "We could very well end up simply getting rid of some of the older dorms and replacing them with new ones, all of which will have sprinkler systems," says Eckels.
As part of a fire safety improvement program begun in 1992, the College has also been advocating prevention. Toasters, hot plates and candles have been banned from students' rooms for 30 years. Halogen lamps were added to the list in 1997. And last October, in response to an insurance audit, the College banned the use of fireplaces located in many of the older dorms. Hanover Fire Chief Roger Bradley is glad to see the fireplaces go. "There haven't been any major fires as a result of the fireplaces, but we've had to respond to a lot of calls because of the smoke, and the risk is definitely there."
Bradley's firefighters responded to 35 calls from Dartmouth undergraduate housing last year; six were for fires that were easily doused, and the remainder were "smoke scares" or nuisance calls. No one was injured by fire at Dartmouth last year. The United States Fire Administration reports that two-thirds of the approximately 1,700 dorm fires that occur nationwide each year are relatively minor and limited to the object of origin. Few result in death.
Overall, Bradley is pleased with Dartmouths fire-safety measures. "Over the last six years Dartmouth has been tremendously proactive on this front," he says. "There is always fire potential, but the smoke detectors they have in place are an excellent early-detection system, and knowing they have a plan to put sprinklers in helps a lot."
Contributors: Morgan Cain '02, Michael Glenzer '01 Jennifer Kay '01, Rachel Richardson '01and Randy Stebbins '01
