By Herb Jackson
The Herald News (Passaic County, NJ)
WASHINGTON — College students need to pressure Congress to make sure dormitories around the country have sprinkler systems to fight fires, a survivor of the 2000 dormitory fire at Seton Hall University said at a news conference Tuesday in the Capitol.
“If there had been a law then requiring sprinklers, it wouldn’t have cost three students their lives and left 58 people injured,” said Shawn Simons, 27, who suffered burns over 15 percent of his body during the fire in Boland Hall.
Simons now works as a community news editor at The Star-Ledger and is the focus of a book published last week by a Ledger reporter about his and his roommate’s recovery from the fire. Simons said he is pleased that New Jersey has required all colleges to install sprinklers.
But the event where Simons appeared demonstrates how tough it will be for Congress to approve a national sprinkler mandate.
The event was held to highlight a new safety measure two New Jersey Congress members saw signed into law last month after eight years of effort. But far from requiring sprinklers, that Campus Fire Safety Right to Know Law introduced in 2000 after the Seton Hall fire simply calls on colleges and universities to give students and prospective students information about the number of fires that have occurred, how many dorms have sprinklers and fire alarms, and campus fire safety policies.
Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr., D-Paterson, and Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., both said they believe publishing the information will lead to pressure from parents and students to improve campus safety.
“We’re going to be able to prevent deaths and injuries with our law,” Lautenberg said.
But rather than require any safety improvements, the law requires the Secretary of Education to provide examples of exemplary programs that schools can use.
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