New fire-safety rules to affect WPI

This past Thursday night, November 9th, the Worcester Fire Department told the City Council Public Safety Committee that college residence halls, fraternities, and sororities will have to have "hard-wired" smoke detectors in every sleeping area with battery backup. The Fire Department is also considering requiring sprinklers in all areas. If the city decides to require sprinklers, it would require the adoption of a state law. There is no known timetable for the colleges in Worcester to comply with the new rules.

According to Philip Clay, the Director of Residential Services, all of WPI's residence halls, except for Stoddard, have sprinklers in all areas. He noted that Stoddard would have sprinklers installed this upcoming summer. He said that sprinklers were installed in the other residence halls during the renovations that have taken place over the last several years.

With regard to the new rules, however, smoke detectors are not in each sleeping area in Founders Hall and the Ellsworth/Fuller Apartments. They both have smoke detectors in common areas.

Also, this past summer, battery backup was installed with the smoke detectors in Founders. In order to comply with the new rules, according to Clay, smoke detectors with the battery backup would have to be installed in all the other residence halls. Clay did not know an exact cost, but said that it would be "very expensive."

WPI's fraternity and sorority houses will also need to comply with the new regulations. According to Clay, a survey was done to see what the situation was with sprinklers in the houses. Two chapters, Zeta Psi and Sigma Pi, do not have sprinklers in their houses. One chapter, Tau Kappa Epsilon, has sprinklers in some areas. All of the rest have sprinklers in the sleeping areas, according to the survey. Clay is recommended that they now move forward to get sprinklers. The situation in the fraternity and sorority houses was unknown to Clay.

WPI has reported seven dormitory fires to the fire department since 1997. Clay said that one of those fires was a fire in Founders this A-term. A lamp fell on a mattress, causing smoke, but no flame. According to Clay, the other fires were all related to cooking. Clay also stated that there have been no injuries and no damage to buildings resulting from those seven fires.

Clay noted one change in WPI policy in the residence halls. Next year all residence halls will be smoke-free. According to statistics from the National Fire Protection Agency, 1700 fires occur on college campuses annually. Also according to the NFPA, smoking is the number one cause of fatal fires, and all students who died in college fires between 1990 and 1994, died in fires where the cause was related to smoking.

Clay stressed that safety is one of the primary objectives here at WPI. He said that it extends to the students who live on-campus, and also to the fraternity and sorority houses. He said that Residential Services is always improving fire-safety physically, with smoke detectors and sprinklers, new policies, and with a better education of students. He noted that WPI's residence halls are in excellent shape, in fact much better than many of the other colleges in Worcester.