By Kat Hughes
Columbia Daily Tribune

COLUMBIA, Mo. — They've sent letters to the Columbia City Council, a city commission, the Columbia Fire Department and city staff. Now, the parents of 13 college students who died in campus fires across the country since 1996 have signed letters mailed to every University of Missouri fraternity and sorority, asking them not to oppose an ordinance requiring Greek houses to install fire-suppression sprinklers.

The letters signed by the parents were written by Campus Firewatch, a monthly publication that lobbies for fire safety in college communities across the nation.

A year ago, the city council passed a law requiring fraternities and sororities to install fire sprinklers by December 2012. A few weeks later, members of Greek organizations said they opposed the ordinance because sprinklers would cost their organizations hundreds of thousands of dollars, bankrupting them. Greek members also said the law was voted on during winter break, when college students would not be in Columbia to attend the public hearing.

In May, the city council voted to send the matter back to the Building Construction Codes Commission for further review. In October, that commission voted to overturn the ordinance. A report on the issue will go before the city council for discussion at its Monday meeting.

Ed Comeau, publisher of Campus Firewatch as well as founder and past director of the Massachusetts-based Center for Campus Fire Safety, said the parents decided to send the letter to the Greek organizations in Columbia to let them know they realize sprinklers are expensive, but it's critical in preventing fire-related fatalities, such as the 1999 death of MU Sigma Chi member Dominic Passantino.

"We do realize it's a cost issue, but it's happening all over the country," Comeau said. "Wherever" fire-sprinkler laws have "been put in place, fraternities and sororities have found a way to get it done."

David Bear, a general contractor and Sigma Chi alumnus, said that, although he is not speaking for the fraternity, he thinks the law unfairly singles out one group of students.

"Fraternities and sororities have been around for 135 years" at MU, "and you've had only one death," Bear said. "If you look at the number of deaths you have in mobile homes or single-family homes, they're way more dangerous than fraternities and sororities. I have a feeling Greek houses were singled out because they can get it done."

Donna Henson of Kansas City, Passantino's mother, said installing sprinklers is the most important thing the Greek houses can do to save lives, and the cost is not a valid reason against it. "There is no cost you can put on a child's life," Henson said.

According to information sent out in October by Campus Firewatch, 82 percent of 114 campus-related fire fatalities since 2000 have occurred in off-campus housing, and 9 percent have occurred in Greek housing.

Columbia Fire Department Battalion Chief Steve Sapp said the city's infrastructure won't support a requirement for sprinklers in all off-campus student housing, such as the East Campus area, where old water mains cannot accommodate sprinkler systems. But sprinklers could be required in the future.

Henson said she thinks all housing should be equipped with fire sprinklers, but that's not what this law addresses. Henson said she doesn't understand the Greek houses' opposition to the law.

"If the parents of these kids knew this was going on, I think they would be pushing for the city council to stand by its decision," Henson said. "It's a matter of life and death. I think we owe it to these students to protect their lives."

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