State senator wants tougher sprinkler laws after fatal motel fire

COLUMBIA, S.C. - An Upstate senator called for tougher fire regulations and incentives to retrofit buildings with sprinklers after a Sunday morning fire killed six people at a Greenville motel.

Four bodies, including a toddler, were found in a third-floor hallway trying to escape the building and two other bodies were found in rooms on the same level. When it was built 20 year ago, the building met codes that didn't require sprinklers.

Sen. David Thomas, R-Fountain Inn, said the state needs to do more to prevent such tragedies in the future in all public places where people may gather, including schools and auditoriums. "We're going to have to look very, very closely now at everything that has been constructed," Thomas said.

Putting sprinklers into new construction is far less expensive than retrofitting existing structures, but Thomas said the state can provide insurers and businesses with incentives to encourage that.

"There are ways that you can talk about perhaps deduction, tax incentives, particularly if we give inducements to insurance companies to give breaks," said Thomas, the Senate's Banking and Insurance chairman. "You can encourage the companies themselves with tax deductions and you can encourage the insurance companies insuring those companies to give those incentives" through policy discounts.

Apart from that, Thomas wants signs warning people that they may be staying in hotels or attending events at places that lack sprinkler systems. "In the lobby it needs to say: 'Warning: This building does not have a sprinkler system,'" Thomas said. "At least you should give people a fair warning. Then they can think through, 'What am I going to do in the case of a fire?'"

Motels also should have to post clear instructions about what guests should do if there is a fire that goes beyond escape routes, Thomas said. "To leave your room sometimes is not the best thing to do," he said.

Thomas called for the changes as he told senators that the fatal fire at the Comfort Inn fire had been set.

"Information that I am getting from sources ... close to the fire investigation are saying that they believe it is arson," Thomas later told The Associated Press. He said one of his sources thinks "the fire was set with gasoline at the entryway of the third floor" by someone with ties to one of the victims.

"I didn't know he was an investigator," said Greenville County Sheriff's Sgt. Shea Smith. He would not confirm nor deny Thomas' claim but said no investigator has released any information to the public.

One of Thomas' sources, when questioned by the AP, would not confirm the senator's remarks.