City officials never acted on sprinklers

A confusing evacuation following Friday morning's Hartwick Tower blaze has renewed long-standing city council debates to improve fire safety.

Although no one was hurt in the fire, a third floor condominium was gutted, causing more than $15,000 in damages in what was the fourth major student housing fire in the area in less than three years.

Since a fire in a Princeton Avenue rental killed 22-year-old Michael Scrocca in 2005, the College Park City Council mandated sprinkler systems for fraternities and sororities and on many occasions considered taking similar actions toward mid-rise housing buildings like Hartwick Tower.

Prince George's County law has required sprinklers for all new housing projects for the past 20 years. But due to the high cost of installing sprinklers into older buildings, College Park Towers and the Attick Towers senior housing facility are the only residential buildings citywide without the safety feature.

Councilmembers said it was too early to say whether they'd revive legislation to require sprinklers in College Park Towers. But Andy Fellows, the councilman who represents College Park Towers, said heplanned to address the fire at Tuesday's council meeting.

Bob Ryan, the city's director of public services, said he'd support a sprinkler mandate.

If Hartwick Tower had a sprinkler system, the fire would have been confined to the room where it started and reduced the damage, said Ryan, who oversees city fire safety.

Despite repeated calls from Mayor Stephen Brayman and scattered city council support for expanding sprinklers, the city has never voted on it.

The tower's owner opposed adding sprinklers following the Scrocca fire, which lead the council to reach a compromise. The tower instead widened condominium windows to allow firefighters better access into rooms.

Site manager Kenneth Gibbs could not be reached for comment.

"We didn't get everything we wanted, but we did make some improvement," Fellows said. "We've been pretty strong proponents of sprinklers for some time now, and there was quite the backlash from the owners. Hopefully this will get them to rethink."

High costs have made any sprinkler discussions controversial, especially in those where existing properties would need to be retrofitted with new piping, such as College Park Towers. Similar measures cost often cost more than $100,000 for fraternities and sororities, when the city mandated improvements for them two years ago.

"When you have to retrofit properties, it's a serious fight," District 2 City Councilman Bob Catlin said. "It's hard to get much done."

Local municipalities have set a precedent against requiring sprinklers for mid-size buildings, Ryan said. But he added the city could still push the towers' owners toward the measure with a series of educational forums that he said the city will coordinate with the university.

"One of the goals that we have is to better educate the consumer, and it doesn't necessarily take a new code to make a change," Ryan said. "If consumers demand a higher standard then the market will demand a higher standard."

Reporter Steven Overly contributed to this story. slivnickdbk@gmail.com