Saving Lives vs. Saving Businesses

The deaths of seven people in a Greenville motel in January have prompted a proposed law that would require hotels and motels to install sprinkler systems.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. David Thomas, R-Greenville, was sent to a Senate subcommittee last week for more work. Some senators objected, saying the costs of installing sprinklers could put some hotels out of business.

Sen. Hugh Leatherman, R-Florence, said some hotel owners from the Myrtle Beach had told him the costs of installing sprinklers would be prohibitive.

Myrtle Beach wisely, considering the number of hotels in the city, in 1980 began requiring sprinklers in new hotels with four or more stories.

South Carolina has required sprinklers in new hotels with three or more stories since 2000. But hotels built before then have been "grandfathered" under the old rules, unless they've done substantial renovations.

It isn't clear how many hotels along the Grand Strand don't have sprinkler systems, but fire officials say there are quite a few. A deadly fire such as the one in Greenville could happen here.

Ideally, all hotels and motels, even those with less than three stories, would have sprinkler systems.

Unpalatable though it is, the sprinkler question may boil down to public safety vs. business survival. There's no doubt such a requirement would be expensive, although more study of the cost of such a law is one reason the bill was sent back to the subcommittee, and it would be a financial hardship for many hotel owners.

COMBO, the Council of Myrtle Beach Area Organizations, raised an excellent point in opposing the bill. Should hotels be required to meet more stringent standards than other buildings that hold many people, such as office buildings or dormitories?

The legislature needs to keep its focus on this issue, even after memories of the Greenville fire are not as fresh. No one wants to see hotels shut down because they can't afford to install sprinklers, but neither does anyone want lives to be lost. The legislature should examine offering tax breaks or incentives for installing sprinklers.

In the meantime, requiring hotels without sprinkler systems to post signs seems a responsible compromise.