Officials to replace aging fire systems

LaPlata Hall's residents will be able to rest a little easier next semester after the university updates the building's fire alarm system over winter break, part of a campus-wide effort to replace aging smoke detection equipment.

With work completed in ten dorms already, Residential Facilities is replacing the control panel system located in dorm lobbies, which helps pinpoint the location of a fire by tracking which alarms have been triggered, Associate Director of Resident Facilities Steve Kallmyer said.

He stressed that students are in no imminent danger because of outdated systems.

"This is part of a pro-active upgrade of systems," Kallmyer said. "Just like any electronic things, alarm systems will wear out. From a facilities management perspective, if you can stay ahead of plan before obsolescence, all the better."

Kallmyer insisted that students have nothing to worry about, because changes will not require workers to enter their rooms and will take place during winter vacation.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX"The work should be invisible to students," Kallmyer said. "Maybe they will notice, but I probably would not notice as a student. It should be a non-event for them."

Assistant Director of Life Safety Systems Jim Robinson described the improvements as a necessary precaution.

"It's just like using a computer that was bought back in 1990," Robinson said. "It still functions; it is just a real nightmare to maintain it. It is just an old piece of equipment residence halls replace because of age."

LaPlata will require less work than other buildings, because some improvements were made a few years ago. The system in LaPlata was installed in 1990, but in 2005 the university replaced the dorm's horn strobes, the wall devices that sound and flash lights when set off.

Projected costs to update the alarm systems in a standard high-rise dorm are around $250,000, Kallmyer said. With the prior work finished, however, the renovations in LaPlata are slated to cost in the range of $70,000 to $90,000.

With Bel Air, Chestertown, Centreville, Cumberland, Cambridge, Calvert, Cecil, Charles, Howard and Washington halls already completed and LaPlata scheduled for this winter, Montgomery and Frederick halls will have their alarms updated this summer.

The next few years will see updates in dorms campus-wide with Dorchester, Garett, St. Mary's and Worcester scheduled for the summer of 2009 and Anne Arundel and New Leonardtown in 2010.

"It's hard to think of anything more important than safety," Kallmyer said. "You can go through a year and not paint a building and not replace doors but in terms of life safety systems, it is not something that any of us want to defer doing. We want to be staying ahead of the curve on those and don't want to be catching up."

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