P.E. Center Fire Alarm System Not Working

The fire alarm system in the Cordts Physical Education Center is not working, according to Bob Boyce, Frostburg State University’s facilities director.

David Rose, FSU’s vice president for administration and finance, estimates a new fire alarm system to cost about $250,000. This money will come from FSU’s capital projects budget, and it does not need to be approved University System of Maryland Board of Regents.

Boyce told the The Bottom Line in an email that a timetable for the fire alarm system’s repair has not been finalized. “The funding will certainly be an issue, this was not a planned expense,” Boyce said.

Faculty and staff were emailed at 4:12 p.m. on Monday, September 21, but students weren’t immediately informed. “When I put out a campus E-Mail like I did late yesterday afternoon to faculty and staff it usually gets forwarded to the student list also,” Boyce said. Liz Medcalf, FSU’s director of news and media services, emailed students at 12:40 p.m. on Tuesday, September 22.

“Until further notice, Facilities and Athletics staff will be instituting a “fire watch” in the PE Building,” said Boyce in the email to faculty and staff. “A “fire watch” consists of staff members being observant as they walk around the building looking for smoke or open fire and trying to identify unfamiliar smells. The fire alarm system has failed and will need to be repaired or replaced as soon as possible. If you smell odors or see smoke or open flames, please call the County 911 Center and Campus Police. Neither the bells nor the strobes will work at this point to signal the need to vacate the building. The fire watch is necessary for us to continue using the building until the fire alarm system is operational again.”

Rose said that the fire alarm system was so old, it may be difficult to find the needed parts to fix the system.

“Right now, they’re looking at–the system is old–they’re looking to see if they can still get the repair parts,” Rose said. “If they can’t, then you look at having someone manufacture specific parts, and if that doesn’t work, then you’re looking at replacing the entire fire alarm system, which now, you’re talking real money.”

“There is no line in the budget that says ‘fire alarm for the P.E. center,’” said Rose. “In our budget we do have monies for capital projects. That would qualify as a capital project. If we had earmarked projects that we wanted to do in a fiscal year, meaning this year, obviously that fire alarm goes to the top. We can’t continue on with a fire watch.”

Rose said they have replaced fire alarm systems in other campus building during the past year and the half. “One building’s system may be $25,000,” he said. Here is a list of recent fire alarm system repairs, provided by Boyce and Rose. “The larger amounts you see on the spreadsheet are for complete replacement,” said Rose. “We patched these systems over and over to the point that replacements were necessary, mostly because parts are no longer available. The amounts vary due to the sizes of the buildings. The smaller amounts are for enhancements such as adding dialers to automatically call 911 when an alarm is pulled or other minor repairs.”

“When you look at our buildings, we have the oldest buildings in the [University of Maryland] System,” Rose said. “Well, when you have the oldest buildings in the system, what’s that mean? It means you’re going to have the biggest repair bills.” Rose said bigger schools in the system, like College Park, tend to get new buildings before they really need to make repairs.

The Frostburg City Fire Department has not replied to a request for comment.

The fire alarm system in the P.E. Center is mostly operational, as of October 1, 2015, with only one zone where the alarm is not operating.