Digital Extra: The Station Fire

Rhode Island's public colleges have tried to improve fire training and have stepped up inspections in the last year.

01:00 AM EST on Friday, February 20, 2004

BY JENNIFER D. JORDAN
Journal Staff Writer

Before the Station fire claimed 100 lives, the deadliest fire in Rhode Island history happened in a college dormitory. Ten young women died in 1977 after a fire engulfed Aquinas Hall at Providence College.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the state's three public colleges all moved to address deficiencies and toughen fire-safety standards in the wake of last year's tragedy.

"We've always been very much concerned about safety, and it's a constant, ongoing process," said Stephen P. McAllister, associate commissioner of higher education. "But the Station fire certainly brought it more into the public view."

The University of Rhode Island and Rhode Island College focused on weaknesses found in student housing. Officials there increased the number of fire drills, started giving students more fire-safety training, and made sure corrections were documented and made promptly, such as fixing broken exit lights.

URI even hired a third fire inspector, to help with the increased load of walk-through inspections. Now all buildings will be checked each month, said J. Kevin Culley, URI's safety and risk-management director.

The Community College of Rhode Island, which has no dormitories, conducted fire-safety audits of its three campuses in Lincoln, Providence and Warwick, to check entrance and exit points, clear out certain storage areas and install extra fire extinguishers, said Stephen Marginson, administration dean for CCRI. Such audits will now be conducted more frequently, Marginson said.

"There was a real heightened sense of awareness that did result [after the Station fire] and it continues," Marginson said.

An audit begun at URI's Kingston campus in 2002 and finished last May found 18 areas that needed improvement, ranging from documenting inspections to installing self-closing doors and emergency-exit maps in all student rooms.

Fraternity, sorority and graduate housing are now held to the same standards as dormitories, and URI administrators are working on requiring written leases and minimum insurance coverage for those groups, said Vernon J. Wyman, URI's assistant vice president for business. Wyman said those were the only two recommendations from the audit that have not yet been completed.

URI's only fire in recent memory occurred in Adams Hall in the 1980s, and caused no injuries, according to URI officials.

But special attention is paid to dormitories, because they contain the most people most of the time, Culley said. About 3,700 students live in dorms and another 900 live in fraternity, sorority or graduate housing. Sprinklers and other fire-safety measures will be added to all dorms over the next several years, as they are updated, Culley said.

"The second most important focus is on assembly places and classrooms, because a lot of people also go there, and because of the Station fire," Culley said.

The Ryan Center, URI's $54-million sports arena, was cited for 24 deficiencies by the state fire marshal last year. While several problems have been fixed and URI has said the facility conforms to a new criteria used to assess building safety, the matter is before the state's Fire Safety Code Board of Appeal and Review. An independent engineer is reviewing the other items of concern and will issue a report later this year. URI's other auditoriums, gyms and academic buildings comply with the state fire code, Culley said.

RIC's five dormitories house about 960 students, and all five have sprinklers, said Normand Gamache, assistant director for safety and security at RIC.

Of the 16 recommendations made in a 2001 fire-safety report, all but 1 -- installing automatically closing doors in dormitory rooms -- have been implemented, and the final change will be made later this year, Gamache said. A team of safety officials walk through all five dorms twice a month, and a campus police officer checks in between visits, looking for vandalized exit signs or missing light bulbs.

Mandatory safety forums for students started this semester, fire drills will now be held during the summer as well as during the school year, and all inspections, corrections and testing are now documented, Gamache said.