Fire-Safety Exam at UCI

UC Irvine has had a commendable safety record since it opened nearly 40 years ago. But a recent fire brought to light the troubling fact that about two-thirds of the buildings on the campus lack firefighting sprinklers.

Among the facilities without sprinklers are two dormitories, five child-care centers and a Montessori school. All met the fire codes when they were built.

Days after the July 23 fire in the five-story Frederick Reines Hall, UCI Chancellor Ralph J. Cicerone pledged to examine the question of fire safety across the campus. That was a good decision. Meeting fire codes is merely a minimum requirement. If some facilities need improvements to make them safer, that should be a priority. Surely dorms and facilities filled with children need sprinklers.

Cicerone’s own atmospheric sciences laboratory is in Reines Hall, where an explosion and fire in a chemistry lab sent flames and smoke billowing out windows and inflicted second-degree burns on a graduate student.

UCI officials said Reines Hall did not have sprinklers, but its concrete and steel construction, with walls and doors built to resist flames, functioned as designed. In some areas, depending on the chemicals used, water may not be the best way to smother a fire, so sprinklers are not a cure-all.

But firefighters, confronted with the flames, poured thousands of gallons of water into the building to bring the blaze under control. The physical sciences dean at UCI, Ron Stern, said the actualy fire damage was limited and damage from water seemed a bigger problem.

Researchers were prevented from entering the building for several days after the fire as health officials examined potentially toxic water. Given the variety of chemicals used, the problem of toxic residue was large.

UCI officials noted that the dormitories lacking sprinklers are two or three stories high. That would make it fairly easy to escape in the event of fire. UCI’s four-story dorm does have sprinklers. It’s time to add the sprinklers to the low-rise buildings as well.

Cicerone said campus buildings do have smoke detectors, fire doors and fire walls that block air from providing fuel for a blaze. Fire-resistant materials also are used. The main library, student center and some engineering and social sciences halls also have sprinklers.

Money is never easy to come by, especially with the state budget impacted this year by high energy costs. But the school will have to see if some projects can be delayed to upgrade fire-protection systems. An Orange County Fire Authority captain said if Reines Hall had been built anywhere else in the county in 1990, sprinklers would have been required. Because the building is state property, they were omitted. That sort of skimping on safety to save money should end.