Photo by Ashley Anklowitz
Ron Templeton Deputy Fire Marshal standing in front of one of the fire trucks.

The new campus deputy fire marshal is cracking down on fire code violations.

Ron Templeton explained that his major responsibility as Deputy Fire Marshal is the enforcement of codes in place for safety. One of these codes could mean removing vending machines from building entryways.

“New code books come out every three years and these codes must be enforced. Federal law states that buildings must be brought up to code as they are being renovated which happens about once a year,” he said. Some of the changes that have been made this year include putting sprinklers in almost all the buildings on campus

Templeton said, “Most changes have been small and most students don’t notice them. For example combustible materials can cover only 10 percent of wall space and when we make these changes we try to educate people about why we are changing things.”

Www.campusfire.org, is a website that shows all of the major accidents that lead to new codes being developed. These facts illustrate that the codebook is reactive—codes are only developed when things happen more than once the same way. The fire department is trying to be proactive and prevent these things from happening on our campus.

In many states it is law to have sprinkler systems in all buildings on campuses. These laws resulted from fatal fires where there were no sprinkling systems. Alaska is one of the only states not to have this law because our campus fire departments placed sprinkler systems in many of our campus buildings without legal requirements.

Templeton explained that every three years when the codebooks come out, changes have to be made so that campus buildings are in adherence to the code. Changes also occur when the university uses buildings for reasons other than they were originally intended for.

This is the case with vending machines. Campus fire chief, Edie Curry said that the vending machines with motors can smoke. Some hallways were originally set up to hold the old-style of vending machines that did not require plugs and motors. Currently, the university is looking into putting vending machines into rooms specifically meant for them. The rooms would have swinging doors in case of a fire.

Curry said the biggest issue is funding. “If anyone has enough money anything is possible. So the biggest hurdle is getting the funding for these rooms.”

When students were asked about their feelings on the removal of the vending machines one student spoke for all. Keva Alexander said, “No I don’t agree because then there would be nothing to drink on campus close to the classrooms. Even if these rooms are built it will take time and in the mean time we [the students] will be forced to walk further to get food and drinks and run the risk of being late to class.”

Templeton’s final message was that he and the rest of the fire and police department are here for the safety of the students. They don’t want to have to call the homes of these students and tell the parents that their child died in a preventable accident.