>Date: Thu, 15 Feb 2001 08:14:19 -0500
>From:
>Subject: Automatic Sprinkler success story
>To: 'Randy Hormann' <[log in to unmask]>
>
>Saturday, February 10, 2001
>
>Rowan had upgraded sprinkler system before dorm fire
>By Kaitlin Gurney
>PHILA. INQUIRER SUBURBAN STAFF
>
>GLASSBORO, NJ - A fire at a Rowan University residence hall was doused by
>sprinklers Thursday night, just six months after the university spent almost
>$2 million to install dorm-room sprinklers.
>The blaze broke out at about 8 p.m. in an unoccupied third-floor dorm room
>in Chestnut Hall when a fan on a windowsill caught fire.  All 380 students
>in the dorm were evacuated without injury.
>The fire was contained to the room, but about 15 rooms sustained water
>damage from the sprinkler system, university spokesman Joe Cardona said.
>About 30 displaced students have been assigned temporary housing until the
>15 damaged rooms are cleaned up, a process expected to take about five days.
>"If you are going to have a fire, this is the experience you want to have,"
>said George Brelsford, assistant vice president for resident life. "With all
>of this water damage, our biggest problem right now is that our sprinklers
>worked."
>Rowan was one of the first five New Jersey colleges to install the dorm-room
>sprinklers mandated by the state after a fatal fire at Seton Hall University
>in January 2000. Three Seton Hall students were killed and more than 60
>others were injured when a fire broke out in a freshman dormitory not
>equipped with sprinklers.
>As one of the five newest of the university's 11 dorms, Chestnut Hall has a
>sprinkler system dating from 1985, when the dorm was built. It took the full
>summer and $1.9 million from the university's emergency reserve to retrofit
>six residence halls with sprinklers, Cardona said.
>A state law passed after the Seton Hall fire gives New Jersey's 43 colleges
>and boarding schools four years for the project to be completed.
>Yesterday, volunteers helped students move their soggy belongings out of the
>water-damaged rooms while administrators fielded calls from concerned
>parents. The university is replacing all textbooks affected by the fire,
>Brelsford said.
>"We're all breathing a sigh of relief today," said student body president
>Ryan North, who is a senior. "It could have been so much worse. Better water
>damage than a life lost."

--

_____________
Randall L. Hormann
Fire/Safety Specialist
Miami University - EHSO
6 Hughes Labs
Oxford, Ohio  45056
Office: 513-529-2461
Fax:    513-529-2830
Page me Via E-Mail:  [log in to unmask]
http://www.ehs.muohio.edu/