Legislators mull bill requiring sprinklers

COLUMBIA -- State Sen. Verne Smith has introduced a bill that would require all South Carolina hotels to install sprinkler systems by 2007 or face losing their licenses.

But Tom Sponseller, president and CEO of the Hospitality Association of South Carolina, which represents the state's lodging and restaurant industry, said legislators shouldn't single out hotels. They should also look at schools, college dormitories and nightclubs, and other structures where people gather.

Smith, a Greer Republican, sponsored the bill in response to a Jan. 25 fire that killed six people at a Comfort Inn in Greenville.

"A fire of that magnitude is a catastrophe," Sponseller said. "But fires just don't happen in hotels.

"If they're going to require retrofitting, they need to do it in a way that offers the most help to the public."

The bill says that all lodging establishments -- hotels, motels, villas, condominiums or inns -- must comply with the latest International Building Code standards for fire suppression. Those standards include sprinkler systems.

"Hopefully this will save some lives," Smith said. "We're giving them three years because we want to make sure they have time to meet the requirements."

New hotels more than three stories high are already required to have sprinklers. Older hotels, however, are not.

"This is good legislation and we need to do it," said Sen. John Hawkins, R-Spartanburg. "I don't know the cause of (the Greenville) fire, but I think all hotels should have sprinkler systems if it will help save lives."

Sponseller said that adding a sprinkler system to an existing building is much more expensive than putting one into a new structure.

"I talked with the people at a large hotel in Charleston today, and they said it would cost $1 million," he said. "We need to do it, but when you have to go out and borrow that kind of money, it's tough. Incentives, such as tax credits, would help."

Sen. David Thomas, R-Greenville, said he would push for tax credits and for insurance carriers to provide a discount on premiums to help hotels comply. He also said he would try to expand the bill to cover public buildings, such as schools.

Thomas said there are only 64 schools statewide that have at least partial sprinkler systems.

"You don't have to do the whole thing," Thomas said. "But you need to have them in auditoriums and cafeterias, places where there could be flash fires.

The bill has been referred to the Senate Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee, which Smith chairs.

Thomas, chairman of the Senate Banking and Insurance Committee, said he would convene a meeting at 11 a.m. Wednesday to come up with ideas to provide incentives for institutions to add the systems.

"We're going to try to get a lay of the land in two hours and see where we need to go," Thomas said.

Mike Padgett, Spartanburg County Building Codes director, said sprinkler systems would be a positive safety step. But he isn't sure if requiring sprinklers in hotels would be cost effective.

"I am proactive when it comes to sprinkler systems because they can save lives," Padgett said. "But I'm not sure how cost effective it would be to go back into hotels that were constructed years ago and do that."

Staff writer Tony Taylor contributed to this report.

Robert W. Dalton can be reached at 562-7223 or bob.dalton@shj.com.

More Headlines