Several of the older buildings at Sacramento State do not have smoke detectors in classrooms or hallways. Smoke detectors were not necessary when the buildings were built, an electrician supervisor said.

Tahoe Hall, Brighton Hall and Alpine Hall are some of the buildings that do not have smoke detectors.

“All buildings on campus meet the current fire code,” said Ron Richardson, associate vice president of Facilities Services.

“We updated systems on a building-by-building basis, and we addressed the most deficient buildings first. We upgraded 20 or 25 buildings on campus.”

For many of the buildings, California fire codes have exceptions, due to the age and particular uses of each building. There are also exceptions from some of the rules based on width of doorways, height of windows and size of stairwells. Single story buildings built before 1974 that have multiple qualifying doorways that exit to a safe area are not required to have smoke alarms or fire sprinklers.

Richardson said that putting smoke detectors in Tahoe Hall was delayed due to funding concerns.

Many of the buildings have smoke detectors in the air ducts and electrical rooms, but not in hallways or classrooms.Facilities Services determined that some buildings didn’t have a great need for smoke detectors. Buildings like Tahoe Hall are concrete and steel structures, which are not likely to burn.

Some of the older buildings are not high priority because they are going to be replaced.

“Brighton and Alpine are going to be torn down,” Richardson said.

Installing smoke detectors in hallways was not fiscally responsible for buildings that were scheduled to be demolished. These buildings are to be torn down once the proposed Science II classroom is constructed.

“We hope to tear down those buildings in the next five years,” Richardson said. Facilities Services expects the construction of the new building to be completed in 2013. Funds to begin planning the building are in place. A bond measure will need to be passed by California voters to fund construction of the new building.

The lack of smoke detectors left some students feeling uncomfortable as they stood near class in Alpine Hall.

“It’s dangerous,” said junior criminal justice major Jennifer Anderson. “It’s a little scary. Every class is pretty much full. If they had a fire, people would trample each other in the small little halls.”

Many students and faculty are not aware of the lack of smoke detectors.

“I didn’t even notice,” said senior business finance major Stephanie Cardenas.

Other students were concerned.

“Frankly, I’m upset that there aren’t smoke detectors in all the buildings,” said senior business finance major Jeremy Davison.

Mike Christensen, vice president of Risk Management and Environmental Safety, said that he wasn’t aware that there are buildings on campus without smoke detectors.

“We spent a huge amount of money upgrading the emergency response system, and I know that all buildings on campus meet what the state requires.”

All buildings on campus were recently wired into the updated emergency response system, allowing public safety staff to immediately call police or fire departments in the event of an emergency.

Kirt Stout, interim manager of Environmental Health and Safety at Sac State, said he was under the impression that all buildings had smoke detectors.

Annette Montgomery, executive assistant to the vice president and CIO for Information Resources and Technology, was also not aware that some buildings lacked fire detection equipment.

California fire code specifies that smoke detectors or sprinklers must be installed in all buildings built after 1974. The only requirements for some old buildings are audible fire alarms and manual pull stations. These requirements depend on the particular building construction and layout of fire escapes, size of rooms, stairs and windows.

“Most of the older buildings don’t have sprinklers because they weren’t required,” Richardson said. “The newer buildings require them, like the AIRC, but by code, they are not required in the old buildings.”

Some areas of certain buildings use a compressed gas fire suppression system instead of sprinklers. These systems are designed to smother fires by using non-combustible gas.

“We have the suppression systems in Admission and Records, as well as in the telephone-switching areas, places where the sprinklers would damage the electronics,” Richardson said.

Claudia Bridges, assistant professor for the College of Business, has an office in Tahoe Hall. She was not aware of the fire department response on March 3 when a heating and air conditioning motor failed and began smoking on the third floor. The smoke did not set off any alarms in the building, and no one pulled the manual fire alarm.

The California fire code specifies that smoke detectors and sprinklers be wired into a system that automatically triggers all alarms in the building. This was accomplished with the upgraded emergency response system.

One of the biggest improvements was the receiving end of the system. The system now automatically notifies public safety immediately if a smoke alarm goes off.

“It doesn’t just send a message saying that there is a fire in Mendocino Hall, for instance. It says that there is a fire in Mendocino Hall on the second floor in room 214,” Richardson said.

In addition to buildings being without smoke detectors, there is a lack of evacuation plans.

The evacuation maps in the newer buildings are colored in light blue and are not easily noticed. Many of the maps are located right next to an exit.

“That is something that we need to look into,” Richardson said. “I wasn’t aware we didn’t have evacuation plans, but that should be something that can be taken care of fairly easily.”

Richardson said that it shouldn’t cost very much to get maps put in all buildings. Facilities Services plans to continue upgrading fire detection equipment across campus as funding allows.

Derek Fleming can be reached at [email protected].