Amendments Made to Greek House Fire Sprinkler Requirments
Posted in Fire Sprinkler Fabrication |

Columbia City Council passed an ordinance in January 2007 requiring all fraternities and sororities to install automatic sprinkler systems within five years. The ordinance received criticism from local chapters and The Fire Sprinkler Task Force was created in order to recommend amendments to the ordinance. City Council voted on those proposed amendments last night. KBIA’s Tyler Goetz has more.

The Fire Sprinkler Task force presented its recommendations for amendments to the sprinkler ordinance last night. Janet Wheller is a member of the task force and President of Kappa Alpha Theta Facility corporation board. She presented some of the recommendations to the city council.

“The recommendation was that the ordinance as it was drafted was unclear as to what constituted a fraternity or sorority it lacked a definition. The task force recommended that they define fraternity and sorority.”

Task force members also recommended extending the original deadline of five years to install the systems to seven years. The city council unanimously approved all the recommendations. The language of the ordinance is now much more specific- fraternity and sorority houses and annexes, housing 16 or more people are now required to install an automatic sprinkler system by March 2016.

“I can’t speak for the entire task force but I’m pleased with the result this evening it think its going to add a hightened degree of life safety protection for individuals that choose to reside in fraternity and sorority houses.”

The amendment also allows city council to vary the requirements depending on the effort of the chapter to raise funds for a sprinkler system. According to the Task Force a sprinkler system for an average fraternity or sorority house would cost between 150 to 160 thousand dollars. Currently there are no programs or funding set up to help Columbia chapters pay for the requirements set by the city, but the task force hopes there is possibility in the future.

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