Sprinkler alarm

If you managed to look past the crime reports, sports and Sudoku in The Diamondback, you may have read about the controversy surrounding Santa Fe Café's lack of sprinklers.

A few years ago, the City of College Park signed a property use agreement with the owners of Santa Fe that included a provision requiring them to put sprinklers in the building within three years of signing the agreement. When those three years passed this past March and the bar still had no sprinklers, the city began pressuring owner Mark Srour and friends to finally take this step to make the facility safer. While Srour has taken baby steps in trying to find the right contractor for the project, he still, to this date, has yet to put sprinklers in Santa Fe.

Under Prince George's County Code, businesses such as Santa Fe are now required to have sprinklers. But because Santa Fe predates this law, it is not required by the county to have sprinklers. So, the city's agreement with the bar is the only existing legal document that could potentially force the owners to take this important safety measure. While the city could conceivably sue Srour, for now, it is taking the approach of politically pressuring him to put the sprinklers in on his own.

Why are sprinklers so important? Let's take a look at the history of bar fires in College Park and around the country.

Many of us still remember the horrific fire that occurred in West Warwick, Rhode Island in February of 2003. One hundred club-goers were killed when the band Great White's pyrotechnics caused a fast-spreading fire in the club, The Station. Similar to Santa Fe, The Station had no sprinklers and wasn't required to because it was established before the county's sprinkler codes were put in place. After the tragic fire, the city's fire chief was quoted as saying, "If there were sprinklers in this building, we wouldn't be here right now." This notion was also recognized by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, which investigated the fire, recommending the city require the installation of sprinkler systems in all new and existing nightclubs.

More recently, R.J. Bentley's also caught fire. During Spring Break 2005, a kitchen stove ignited after operating hours. The fire caused $25,000 worth of damage and hospitalized firefighter Captain Ari Schloss. Again, this may have been prevented if Bentley's had sprinklers. To this day, the bar has not installed any. Bentley's is also grandfathered in and does not have a property use agreement with the city because it was established long before the city began using such agreements.

Another fire also occurred at the very spot where Santa Fe is now located. More than 30 years ago, what was then the Varsity Grill's "Back Room" caught fire and was virtually destroyed.

It should not take a tragedy to make obvious the need for higher safety standards. According to USA Today, studies have shown sprinkler systems reduce chance of fire death by 82 percent. Not to mention, in addition to being an invaluable investment for the safety of bar patrons, sprinklers can also prove to be an important property and legal investment for the bar owners should a fire ever actually occur.

We as students probably have way more power than the city or the university does regarding sprinklers. Students are by far and away the most common patrons of the downtown College Park bars. Can you imagine what would happen if students decided collectively to boycott a bar or bars until the owners finally conceded to improve safety, whether we're talking about sprinklers or general safety? The chances of this actually happening are pretty slim, but next time you pay cover or buy drinks, maybe you should at least take a second to think about where the money is going - or better yet, where it isn't.

Jesse Blitzstein is the student liaison to College Park City Council and Amanda Tuma is the deputy student liaison. They can be reached at jblitz@umd.edu and atuma@umd.edu, respectively.