GSU officials say fire lane problem fixed

GRAMBLING(AP)—Prob-lems reported with a fire lane near some new dormitories at Grambling State University have been corrected, school officials say.
Last week, the city of Grambling’s fire chief, Carl McCarter, said a fire truck bogged down on a grass covered fire lane between the buildings. The lane was constructed of a material called FiberSoil.
GSU Vice President Daarel Burnette said this week that the manufacturer of the material gave instructions for corrective action and that the lane now supports the weight of a 60,000-pound truck.
McCarter said he looks forward to being able to test the fire lanes again for his own assurance.
“It’s good that they’ve gone ahead and quickly addressed the problem,” he said. “I just want to test it again and see for myself that the ground will hold up under the weight of the trucks.”
Burnette and an assistant, Leon Sanders, say fire safety was a major part of plans when the new freshman dorms were built.
“When we built the dorms, we made sure not to have high-rises like we used to,” Sanders said. “The Ruston and Grambling fire truck ladders weren’t big enough to reach the top of a high-rise, so we purposely designed them to be low enough where we could get a ladder to them.
“If you look at the buildings, they’re all brick, with tile floors. We tried to use as much fire-retardant material as possible in their design. We have smoke alarms in every room and fire alarms all over the buildings. The hallways and stairways are nice and wide to provide for easy and quick access in case of emergency.”
Sanders said the water supply to sprinklers was also designed to handle more water than required, thereby providing more water to fight fires in case it’s needed.


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