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news
Recent U.C. fire
raises concern
By Tina Dhamija
Summer On-line Forty-Niner
Last week a fire
ripped through the University of California Irvine science
lab, injuring three and causing concern throughout the campus.
After the fire,
which occurred just before 4p.m. on Monday, July 23, in UCI's
Frederick Reines Hall, some unrest over the building's sprinkler
system emanated when spectators and investigators discovered
that the building did not have a sprinkler system.
The big question
on many minds after learning the cause of the blaze, was just
how a building at a well-funded college like UCI did not have
something so basic as a fire safety indoor sprinkler system.
The immediate answer came through UC spokesman, Tom Vasich,
who issued the following statement after the fire.
"The concrete
building doesn't have a sprinkler system," Vasich said.
" Water wouldn't work with the chemicals they have in
there."
Research shows
that what Vasich said is the truth for UCI, but what about
other university structures on other campuses? What about
the safety standards of the CSU system? Furthermore,
what type of safety standards do students have here at Cal
State Long Beach?
It is evident from
California Health and Safety Code documents, that state universities
do not necessarily always have to comply with general fire
safety regulations set by the state, since not all buildings
on a college campus can fall into the same type of occupancy
and structure classifications.
"I know there's
only a handful of buildings that have sprinkler systems on
this campus," said Tim Ball, Associate Director of Facilities
at CSULB. "Some buildings are partially sprinkled, depending
on occupancy and grouping."
When looking at
science buildings on campus, it may be alarming to find that
out of all three Peterson Hall science buildings, only one,
PH3 has indoor sprinklers.
"PH3 is a
type 'H' structure, much like the one Irvine has," Ball
said. "PH 1and 2 are type 'I' structures which are fire
resistant. There are no sprinklers in them because of chemicals
stored in these buildings, and because of occupancy."
Under item 904.4
of the California Building Uniform Code, "Permissible
Sprinkler Omissions," fire safety sprinkler systems shall
not be omitted from an establishment simply because it is
made of fire resistant materials. What can constitute for
the two Peterson Hall buildings being unequipped with sprinkler
systems is the fact that they store hazardous chemicals and
because of occupancy standards.
As of right now,
15 of the buildings and structures on this campus have indoor
sprinkler systems for fire prevention. In fact, investigation
of CSULB's fire safety system has uncovered that this campus
is now, and has been for the past year and a half, been undergoing
an all out renovation project of its fire safety systems.
The most current
renovation effort of this project is an upgrade of 90 percent
of the fire alarm systems on campus. Providing this service
is independent contract group, Jam Fire Protection. Mike Mongillo,
Foreman of Jam Fire Protection assured that so far as he has
seen, CSULB has an acceptable, if not exemplary fire safety
system.
"From what
I've seen here [at CSULB] and the buildings I've worked on,
yes, this school has a good [fire safety] system. Most of
the fire alarms on this campus are pretty new too."
However, it has
been found that most, if not all, of the safety sprinklers
on this campus have been here since the time of each building's
construction. Now if looked at in depth, that means that some
of the sprinkler systems on this campus are as old as its
buildings, some of which are more than 50 years old.
"All sprinkler
systems on this campus were installed at the time of construction,"
said Ball. " We check and maintain them all on a regular
basis."
That "regular"
basis, Ball maintains, is a quarterly check-up provided by
contractors hired under the university Facilities Management
department. Mongillo said his company and others perform practice
fire drills on this campus each semester and this campus has
an assigned Fire Marshall posted.
Fire safety measures
on this campus are satisfactory it seems, and the renovation
project seems to have a handle on things.
At the time of
the UCI blaze, the Los Angeles times reported that approximately
100 fire fighters from four different departments had to be
called in, and it took a reported two and a half hours to
contain. UCI seemed to have the same amount of fire safety
technique in its science labs CSULB does: no sprinklers and
fire resistant walls. Both of which did not seem to aid in
containing the flames in a quick and timely manner.
For that, Mongillo
and Ball said that CSULB's fire safety renovation program
covers all buildings on this campus through a new fire alarm
network system.
"We're building
an alarm network that runs through the whole university and
funnels directly into the campus police department,"
Mongillo said. "That way, if there is a fire emergency
anywhere on campus, it can get reported in time."
Ball said that
with the renovation plans and the new safety alarm network
system CSULB seems to have its bases covered in the area of
fire safety. This campus cannot have fire sprinklers in its
labs and the most that can be done to alert a fire on campus
is being done.
"Labs shouldn't
have sprinkler systems in them, not by a matter of opinion,
but by matter of design," Ball said. "With all the
upgrades in recent time and the new alarm system, we're [fire
safety wise] as good as anyone could be."
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