Smoke Alarm System Planned

The University will install 5000 smoke detectors in campus dormitories between now and the beginning of the next academic year to comply with a new city ordinance, officials said yesterday.

At least $250,000 will be spent to install the detectors in dorm rooms alone. Robert Saltonstall, associate vice president for operations, said yesterday. It will cost thousands more to equip common rooms and hallways with detectors, a job that "realistically won't be complete until a year from now," Saltonstall added.

All of the more than a thousand open-market rental apartments will also be equipped with the detectors by the end of 1982, Sally Zeckhauser, president of Harvard Real Estate (HRE), added.

A city ordinance requiring installation of detectors was adopted by the city council in September 1980 and went into effect with the beginning of 1982, but city fire officials said yesterday they were satisfied Harvard was making a "good faith" effort to comply with the law, and added they would not go to court to speed up installation of the detectors.

Thousands

"They've been making good progress--they come in here all the time with plans." Deputy Fire Chief William Cantwell, who is in charge of the city's fire prevention program, said yesterday.

Most University dormitories are currently without detectors, Saltonstall said. He added that officials had just made the decision to install photoelectric, rather than ionization, detectors, and that the orders for the equipment will be placed soon.

"Photoelectric detectors may be a little faster at catching smoldering fires, which are the most common in rooms like these," Saltonstall said, adding the photoelectric devices might also be slightly less susceptibble to false alarms.

Each of the 5000 room detectors will cost about $20, and wiring each unit may cost an additional $30, Saltonstall said.

Detectors will be installed in living rooms in each suite, but not in bedrooms, Saltonstall said. "We don't think it's a compromise, since the living area is the most susceptible," he added.

Officials have yet to decide what type of detectors to install in the common room areas and hallways, Saltonstall said. When installed, those detectors will set off alarms throughout adjoining hallways if triggered, he said.

The room detectors will signal only the occupants of the suite, however, he added.

City councilor David Sullivan, a proponent of the original detector ordinance, said yesterday HRE should have been able to comply with the law by the time it took effect this month. "They've had 19 months," Sullivan said, adding tenants might be able to withhold rents until the detectors were installed. The Harvard Tenants Union mentioned the delay in a letter to Zeckhauser last week.

Zeckhauser, though, said HRE was "doing its best" to comply, adding, "the fire chief is pleased with us."