Fire...

[DeltAlum]

I just got a letter from Delta Tau Delta. This year each of our chapters can expect a 25-35% increase in insurance premiums.

Consider this:

Seven Fire losses equalling $1,384,595

Delt has experienced no fire deaths. As you know, others have.

Please be careful.

(By the way, houses with fire sprinkler systems receive a significant discount (as muchn as 50 percent)

DeltAlum

[DeltAlum]

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

[33girl]

The UNIVERSITY owned the house and fire codes were in arrears??!? I can't tell you how angry this makes me. Our landlord was a jerk at times, but we never had to worry about being in a fire trap (as the smoke detectors wailing over burned toast could attest).

The bill in PA to install sprinklers in all student housing is dead, but all 14 of the state system schools are putting them in the dorms anyway. At my school, all the Greek houses are off campus, and all except one fraternity and a couple sorority houses are outside the borough, which means the codes are even more lax. And if the groups were to complain to the landlords about fire safety or such, they would probably get thrown out. A lot of people have trouble paying dues as it is, let alone raising them to accomodate fire safety. But it is a necessity.

But if you've ever seen some of the slums students have to live in, this isn't just a Greek issue, it's a college issue.

[DeltAlum]

Yup! I think on this one we can agree to agree.

[33girl]

Originally posted by DeltAlum:
Yup! I think on this one we can agree to agree.

I guess we should warn everyone to look out for the low flying pig.

[Corbin Dallas]

Our housing corp. has been trying to get a sprinkler system installed in our house, to lower insurance. However, we have looked into this, and according to the water company(i think), this is going to be a quite expensive process, and our insurance is low enough, for other reasons, that a discount for having sprinklers wouldn't outweigh the costs. Besides, our house is made of concrete and steel.

On a side note, we are completely up to code, have an awesome smoke detector system in the common areas, and smoke detectors in each room, fire extenguishers everywhere, and currently we're working on getting the electrical up to code. The house was built 25 years ago, and people have wired their own rooms. some did an excellent job, and some just plain suck. i'm rewiring my room up to code before i move in in 2 weeks.

------------------
Steve Corbin
Lambda Chi Alpha
Theta Kappa Chapter
Rose-Hulman Inst. of Tech.

[DeltAlum]

33...

That's funny.

He/she/it almost hit me. We did agree at least one other time. Didn't we?

Steve...

That's great.

DeltAlum

[33girl]

Originally posted by DeltAlum:
33...

That's funny.

He/she/it almost hit me. We did agree at least one other time. Didn't we?

Yes, but I can't remember what. Anyone who wants to do a search and find it wins a pony!

Please pardon my goofiness all....I was walking around an amusement park all day in 97 degree heat. (way to schedule the company picnic)

[DeltAlum]

33...

You must have gone to a Disney park. I've seen low flying pigs there. And elephants, too...

Your new pal...

DeltAlum