I'm not on a crusade, but the day after I posted the above, this appeared:
From the Denver Post
"Denver University Frat tops city's list of code violators."
"Welcome to 2060 S. Gaylord Street, the champion of fire-code violators in Denver.
The three-story brick Tudor-style building in the heart of the University of Denver campus, home of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, was cited for 45 code violations last year, more than any other location in the city, according to Fire Department computer records.
That's no small feat considering firefighters must inspect about 25,000 locations each year, from skyscrapers to festival booths.
Three other DU Greek houses ranked in the top 15.
'One could almost say that they're frat houses, so it's expected,' said Joseph Gonzales, Chief of the Fire Prevention and inspections for the Denver Fire Department.
'But this is life safety, and we don't take that leniently.'
Several of the DU houses, some of which are owned by the university and leased to the groups, have violated fire codes for years according to records.
Firefighters have found exit doors blocked by piles of clothes or trash, inoperable fire doors and alarms, and expired fire extinguishers.
They would issue verbal warnings and return to find the same violations and issue the same warnings.
Then in October, the department gave written orders for the Greek houses to comply with the fire code or risk going to court. Five fraternities, (Beta Theta Pi, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, Sigma Chi, Lamda Chi Alpha and Chi Phi) and a sorority (Delta Zeta) were ordered to get a fire-safety assessment by an independent consultant.
The consultants also found varied fire-code violations.
The Fire Department followed up with another round of compliance orders in Feburary -- this time addressing them to officials at the university.
'This is a situation that we don't want to see continue and we wanted to know that the houses are safe,' said DU spokesman Warren Smith.
Smith explained that for two years, DU has been pushing to keep fraternity and sorority houses in compliance with fire codes.
'Some of our chapter houses are in good shape, but other chapters have repeatedly allowed their facilities to fall into a state of dissrepair,' he said.
Not only are violations getting cleaned up, but each room in each house is required to have a smoke detector and emergency exit guides. Fire alarms are tested regularly, and each house must have a resident nonstudent manager. Also, students are given a fire-safety orientation and fire drills will be conducted regularly, Smith said.
'You have 19 and 20 year olds living on their own for the firtst time,' he added. 'They're young, unpredictable and live hard. They just got lax.'"
Personal comment: I kind of suspect that someone will say that the Fire Department is "targeting" these houses. I don't know. I doubt it. In any event, it dosen't matter. There have been a number of tragic fire related deaths in Greek housing over the past year. The important thing is to take a look around your house and see how it stacks up. You don't want to put yourself in unnecessary peril.
DeltAlum
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