School blaze ignites debate over use of sprinklers

A fire that raced through a wood-framed West Babylon elementary school Thursday night is stirring debate over whether sprinklers could have prevented the building's destruction.

Like most Long Island schools, South Bay Elementary had no water sprinklers - a fact well known to educators that surprised some parents.

Some local officials speculate that sprinklers - however expensive - might have prevented many of the school's more than 300 children from losing their classrooms.

"It would have helped confine the fire and control the fire," said Jim Campbell, West Babylon's first assistant fire chief. "Sprinklers are advantageous in any fire scenario."

Gil Hanse, Town of Babylon fire marshal, is less certain that sprinklers would have prevented the school's gutting. "The fire service always recommends sprinkler systems, but would it have helped in this situation? I don't know," he said.

The blaze spread quickly through the K-5 school, officials said, and did not appear to be suspicious.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation, Hanse said. The blaze started in the middle of the school and spread to a section between the rafters and the ceiling and then throughout the school's corridors.

"The fire alarm apparently went off at 10 p.m. and the head custodian responded," West Babylon Superintendent Anthony Cacciola said. "By the time he got there, the fire department was already on the scene."

The fire was under control around 2:30 to 3 a.m., Hanse said.

South Bay Elementary School was built in the early 1950s, before sprinklers became common. Since then, updated building codes in New York, as in many other states, have required sprinklers in school spaces of more than 20,000 square feet. Schools built before the code was changed to include sprinklers don't have to have the devices.

New York State's code is administered by the Department of State in Albany. However, the state Education Department is responsible for enforcing the code in regard to schools. That agency reviews all school building plans to determine if they meet the code.

State Education Department officials said the school had all of its inspection reports in order and had a valid certificate of occupancy. The school's last fire inspection was in April 2009 and it was due for another in April, said state Education Department spokesman Tom Dunn.

Experts say it's common in school construction to enclose spaces smaller than 20,000 square feet within fire-resistant walls, thus avoiding the sprinkler requirement.

"You could have a nearly 100,000-square-foot school, and architects will divide it into five sections of less than 20,000 each," said John A. Viniello, president of the National Fire Sprinkler Association, a trade group based in upstate Patterson that represents manufacturers, contractors and others.

Viniello, whose group lobbies for stricter sprinkler requirements, says the trend is toward installing the safety devices in new buildings. He estimates that sprinkler systems cost between $2 and $3 per square foot.

But when it comes to fire safety in schools, education officials and architects alike say the emphasis must be placed on equipment and training that clears buildings as rapidly as possible. This means fire alarms - a requirement in every school - as well as increasing numbers of smoke alarms and strobe lights that can help children evacuate smoke-filled buildings.

Henry Grishman, superintendent of Jericho schools and a former president of the State Council of School Superintendents, does not recall ever seeing a school building equipped with sprinklers.

Some local authorities see less expensive ways of preventing fires - for example, through use of heat-detecting systems. In the Sachem school system, officials are seeking state permission to install electronic monitors that can detect sudden changes in building temperatures.

Bruce H. Singer, the district's associate superintendent for business, said the monitors would prevent energy waste and provide early warning of potential fires.With Joie Tyrrell