Email to a Friend

Printer Friendly Version

 Security bars. They're being used to help keep students at brown university safe. But are the same bars putting residents in danger if there's an emergency? 

 Brown has an extensive fire safety program that meets and in some cases exceeds the state fire code. But we found that first floor windows in many of its dormitories have fixed metal securty bars blocking a possible escape route in the event of a fire.

Brown University is one of the oldest and most prestigious colleges in the country. it has a student body of about 7-thousand and sits on college hill, an urban area where assaults and break-ins are not unusual.. And that's the reason many ground floor windows are covered with metal security bars.

But do those bars block an important escape route in the event of a fire? The university's director of environmental health and safety says student welfare is never comprised. "The safety of the students is the most important thing that we can do and that we must do. We try to balance the safety through security and certainly through fire safety."

 Morin says all the dorms have early warning systems, including smoke and fire detectors and alarm pull stations. He says many dorms have full springler systems.  "All dorms have some springlers. Egress is a very important part of our action plan and the fire codes and in our buildings we focus on two means of egress that don't include the windows."  Morin says roughly half the security bars covering windows in dorms can be easily opened and this is a release mechanism that can be released on the inside without any special tools or keys and when that releases these bars swing but it's the permanently fixed security bars on many dorm windows which do not have release mechanisms and cannot easily be removed.

These bars cause concern among fire officials. Providence fire marshal David Costa says Brown University meets the fire code - even with the fixed security bars.  But he says he discourages the use of the fixed bars because they present another obstacle to firefighters. So should Brown University consider installing quick release bars on all dorm window that have bars?  "It's something that may happen over time."   "The fact that Mr. Costa said he didn't like them, i'd like to follow up on that and see if that's something we should put on our list of things to do. 

The tough, new state fire code was written after the tragic station nightclub fire that took 100 lives. But the new code makes no mention of security bars, perhaps because the issue has never come up before in rhode island. It has in other parts of the country and the trend is to require, or at least recommend, quick release mechanisms when security bars are used.