In January, four students at Mississippi University for Women were killed in a fire at the Days Inn in Hoover, Ala. The blaze raged out of control largely because the motel was — legally — not equipped with sprinklers.
Many hotels and motels across the United States don”t have sprinklers because they were grandfathered in when new codes were adopted.
Todd Weathers, fire marshal for the Columbus Fire Department, explained that any residential dwelling must have sprinklers with three exceptions: houses for one or two families, townhouses and any building constructed before the CFD adopted the 2006 international fire code. Most of the hotels in Columbus fall into that category.
Weathers referenced a recent fire at the Malco Theatre. A popcorn popper got a little too hot and flamed. Sprinklers reduced the damage.
“The sprinklers activated and stopped the fire,” Weathers said. “You can”t even tell where it was. Sprinklers are well worth what they cost to put in. They do their job.”
On June 4, an Associated Press story said U.S. fire departments receive reports of around 3,900 fires at hotels and motels each year. On average, there are 15 deaths, 150 injuries and $76 million in damages. Sprinklers reduce those numbers.
“They”ve never pulled anybody dead out of a sprinklered building,” said Carole Summerall of the Columbus Fire and Life Safety Education Office.
And whether there are sprinklers in the motel or not, Summerall said, there is always an evacuation plan.
“Our big thing is to get out regardless of where you are,” she said. “With those girls, I think they were waiting for someone to rescue them.”
Lowndes County Coroner Greg Merchant remembered a man who was killed by a 2007 fire in his apartment complex.
“If there was a sprinkler system in there, it may have had a different outcome,” he said.
In the last several years, there have been two other major apartment fires.
“The Holiday apartments have burned two different times,” Weathers said, referring to apartments behind the Master Hosts Inn of Fifth Street North.
The fire department is encouraging the installation of residential sprinklers, he added, but people are slow to spend the money because of the bad economy.
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