Hill House fire safety updates underway

Fire safety equipment upgrades have been scheduled for Hill College House, with the installments of new sets of sprinklers and fire alarms beginning over spring break.

Last week, maintenance personnel installed a set of sprinklers that run vertically through the building.

About five years ago, Penn and other universities around the country started looking at the safety standards in their dormitories.

"There had been several accidents in a couple of universities that highlighted concerns," University Director of Design and Construction Management Darrin Reazor said. "Everyone is moving in this direction, so four or five years ago, the [University Board of ] Trustees made [fire safety] a priority."

Installation in the residential areas will be taken up during the summer. Completion is scheduled before move-in in September.

"Work continues quietly in the basement area," Reazor said of the Hill project. "We've been pretty successful in the past in other dormitories. We want to get all the work done and minimize disruption."

Students were notified of the installation project by Residential Services Administrator Ruthanna Kulp, who sent out the renovation schedule and said the noise would be kept to a minimum before May 10. For the rest of the semester, work taking place between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m will be silent, according to Facilities Services officials. During reading days and finals, all work will be halted.

When construction is complete, "the addressable system will allow every device in the system to report back the exact location of the alarm," Reazor said. "This way, we can zero in on the problem area."

After Hill, renovations will begin in King's Court/English College House and Harnwell College House during the summer. When these projects are completed, the only buildings to require upgrades will be Sansom Place West and Sansom Place East.

Hill residents said the construction work was called for, especially considering the high number of fire alarms that have recently been set off in non-emergency situations.

"I think it's a good idea [to renovate the system] because fire alarms have been a pain," Hill resident and College freshman Tory Haavik said.

Haavik added, however, that some perplexities remained about the timing of the operation, which he thought could have been initiated during the summer with minimum levels of disturbance for residents.

The project receives funds from the commonwealth of Pennsylvania through the House Bill No. 209 of 2001. The University has borrowed a little over $20 million, to be repaid in 20 years. Not all dormitories will be covered because of spending limits of the loan.

"The Pennsylvania Higher Education Facility Authority caps at 3 percent the debt for [dormitory] sprinkling," Penn Finance and Treasury Management Assistant Vice President Lucy Momjian said. "The state would give us the difference between the repayment rate and 3 percent."

The plan to equip the building with this updated system is one of the last steps in a process to bring all dormitories up to par with the safety standards the University has endorsed.

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