Victims, families continue to push for fire safety

Survivors and family members of victims of two tragic fires were in Washington recently to continue their efforts at pushing for new safety laws.

They were there because of the deaths last year of students from the University of South Carolina and Clemson at a private home in Ocean Isle, N.C., and several years ago, students in a fraternity house at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

Ashley Perdue from Florence, who got out of the house in Ocean Isle, was one of those in Washington to testify before a congressional committee urging stronger regulations for campus buildings as well as those off campus.

According to an Associated Press story Perdue, a student at USC,  told the committee:

“They were seven wonderful, genuine people who should be with us today. Because there weren’t any sprinkler systems in the house, they aren’t here.”

Kaaren Mann of Greenville, whose daughter, Lauren Mahon, a USC student who was also killed in the Ocean Isle fire, was there, as well.

“Ideally, I’d like to see fire sprinklers as common as seatbelts,” she told the AP.

According to the AP story more than 120 college students have lost their lives in the last 10 years to fires.

Last month, Congress passed and President George Bush signed legislation to require universities to keep better records on steps they have taken to prevent fires under a bill known as the “Campus Fire Safety Right-to-Know Act.”

But as we know, lots of the deaths, including the ones at Ocean Isle, were not on college campuses.

So the students and families and friends were there in Washington to push for a pending bill called the Fire Sprinkler Incentive Act.

This will use tax breaks to try and get schools and property owners to put sprinklers in older buildings.

The South Carolina legislature considered a similar bill this year, but it did not get approved.

In addition to lobbying Congress, students said Tuesday’s trip was intended to raise awareness for fire safety and prevention on college campuses.

Rep. James Clyburn, who met with the group along with Rep. Joe Wilson, told them according to the AP story:

Last year, “we mourned the lives — and the future promise they had — that were cut short in such a dramatic way. Today, we can see the legacy of their lives in this room.”

We hope the legacy will be improved safety so that tragedies such as these two fires can be prevented.