Brown and White Vol. 91 no. 23

              lehigh university brown and white bethlehem pa friday november 30 1979 215-861-4184 officials admit fire safety problem by jerry miller and jim morrison editor's note the following story and the one at the bottom of this page are the first installments in a series of articles dealing with fire safety at the university these stories and the ones to follow hi future issues are the result of a three-month investigation by jim morrison jerry miller jill paul and gay elwell ■ . the university has come a long way in improving fire safety since the dravo house fire of jan 24 1977 see related story below ■ in nearly three years that have passed since the fire safety in the residence halls system has greatly improved the fire bells that didn't sound or were missing in that early morning blaze have been replaced the toxic flammable trash cans where the fires were started have been removed fire drills and room inspections are conducted regularly most im portantly the residence operations staff has gained a new awareness of the dangers of fire in dormitories however campus officials admit that serious fire problems still exist a brown an white investigation has revealed these flaws in the university's fire safety program virtually all academic buildings more than 20 years old have definite fire problems according to the university's director of physical planning linderman library could become a dangerous fire trap in the event of a fire in the stacks area the b&w has learned from university officials — brodhead house was designed two inches shy of 60 feet tall effectively bypassing a dty ordinance requiring sprinkler systems for highrise buildings the university operates admittedly in direct violation of a pennsylvania state law dealing with fire drills in acartanrtr buildings though thousands of student faculty and staff lives are at stake no one inter viewed by the b&w has any recollection of a state review of the university's fire inspection records contrary to popular belief university buildings are not inspected by the city no single administrator seems to have a clear view of the total fire safety problem at the university responsibility for maintaining safe buildings is divided among several university officers resulting in uneven and inconsistent levels of safety for different areas of campus after the dravo fire it was discovered that nearly 30 percent of all fire alarms in the university's older dormitories did not work the residence operations office has since seen to it that all these alarms 12 in all were replaced they are now tested monthly by an outside firm in addition fire drills are held regularly every semester at the time of the dravo fire residents of the building had not participated in a fire drill for almost a memory of the fire was faded when building brodhead house two inches were lopped off the top apparently to spare the expense of installing city required sprinkler systems money concerns are also holding up the renovation and fire-proofing of almost all older university buildings according to b&w photo by henry it was three years ago that these dravo house students participated in a fire drill hi which between 25 and so percent of the alarms in richards dravo drinker mcclintic marshall and taylor house malfunctioned that problem has been cleared up but university officials now admit to other fire safety problems in academic buildings iranian students maintain status by ed white investigators from the u.s department of justice's immigration and naturalization service philadelphia district found only one slight irregularity in current status among iranian students at the university last week the investigators michael martin and carl karmilowicz spent most of the day last tuesday interviewing the iranian students on campus during the last two weeks they have interviewed students at nearly a dozen colleges and universities in eastern pennsylvania the investigators found visas and scholastic standing to be in good order for all but one university iranian student whose period of stay granted under terms of his entrance visa recently expired in order for a foreign student to have his period of stay extended the student must file an application for extension with the immigration service according to a spokesman for the philadelphia district office if the student does not apply before his current period of stay expires the extension may not be granted subject to the approval of immigration officials the extensions however are usually granted if everything else is in order the spokesman said this one student neglected to extend his stay in time according to fred ressler associate registrar this happens frequently with foreign students ressler said but because it was an iranian it seemed to be more important that it would normally we're checking this one irregularity out thoroughly martin said it ap parently was not a willful decision when the trouble erupted in tehran this student simply decided it was safer to remain nere the student did go through the normal procedure to extend his stay but he did so after the original period expired ressler said we are not persecuting anyone martin said we simply want to know b«.w ptwto by komarow delta tan delta has beaten the rush by getting its banner up . , early for the december 8 playoff game at murray state early show jniv£r*uy in kentucky for a preview of winter sports see insert student lives endangered fires h it nation s colleges by jill paul vol tl — no 23 it all started innocently enough initiation night for the 1976 alpha chi rho pledge class at ohio state university had finally arrived little did the members suspect that the night's activities would end in mourning not celebration the mood in the three-story house was one of anticipation five pledges were assigned to clean-up a paper-strewn room dirtied by a previous pledge ritual they began the meticulous task of stacking one piece of tracing paper on top of another it took some time but at 1 40a.m they stood back back to admire their three-foot-high stack the next step was to burn the paper which lay waiting inches from a large open fireplace they started a blaze boy scout style and began placing the tracing paper in the hearth suddenly a spark shot out of the fireplace and ignited the remainder of the paper panic broke out as the flames leaped onto an imitation leather sofa with foam rubber seats it was 1:45 when two pledges futilely attempted to stamp out the spreading blaze meanwhile two others had dashed for buckets of water they wasted at least five precious minutes j the fine lapped at the plaster board walls as 17 other members upstairs continued to prepare.the secret room for the initiation's climax without warning choking poisonous smoke filled the room it \ was everyone for himself in a mad \ - rash for the lone accessible exit firemen quickly arrived at the scene and took a head count three persons were missing firemen entered the smoke-filled building to find the missing students in the middle of what used to be the party room a fireman discovered mark heinz 18 of toledo tin j conscious he had second and third degree burns over 60 percent of his body the table heinz had crawled : under in a desperate attempt to \ see brodiiead page 5 , see iranian page s sec two page 11 ■