State set to require sprinklers

Spurred by last year's deadly blaze at a nightclub in West Warwick, R.I., Massachusetts lawmakers sent a bill to Governor Mitt Romney yesterday that would require every bar and nightclub in the state with a capacity of 100 or more people to install a sprinkler system. Romney is expected to sign the measure.

Lawmakers set the 100-person standard after bar and nightclub owners lobbied to weaken the recommendation of a state task force that called for sprinklers in bars and nightclubs holding 50 or more people.

The Massachusetts law will be stronger than a new Rhode Island law, which requires sprinklers in establishments holding 150 people or more. It meets the standard set by the Quincy-based National Fire Protection Association after the deadly February 2003 fire at The Station in Rhode Island.

''We work in the art of the possible," said Senator Stephen M. Brewer, a Barre Democrat who served on the task force. ''Many business owners, especially in Central and Western Massachusetts, are troubled by change, frankly. This is a quantum leap forward."

The measure includes a tax break to help business owners pay for sprinklers. It would also beef up enforcement of fire-safety laws and send $11.5 million to local fire departments, which can use the money to improve fire inspector training, purchase new equipment, or expand fire safety education.

Shortly after the House and Senate approved the bill yesterday morning, Massachusetts legislators described their measure as the most comprehensive overhaul of the state's fire rules since changes made following Boston's Cocoanut Grove nightclub fire in 1942. Nearly 500 people perished in that blaze. Forty of the 100 victims of The Station blaze were from Massachusetts.

Senator Jarrett T. Barrios, cochairman of the Joint Public Safety Committee, said that in Massachusetts there has never been a fire-related death in a building with sprinklers. Last year, the president of a large sprinkler installation company in Massachusetts estimated the cost of installing sprinklers to be about $1.50 to $2 per square foot of space or up to $10,000 to $15,000 for a 5,000- to 7,500-square-foot club.

But the cost can be much higher, depending on the building.

Several Boston-area bar owners said yesterday they were worried about the cost of installing sprinklers. Under current law, new buildings of many uses, including bars, must be equipped with sprinklers, but many existing bars and clubs are located in older buildings, and their owners haven't been required to install sprinklers.

Marc Kadish, who owns Big City in Allston, said it would cost ''hundreds of thousands of dollars" to install sprinklers in his club, which has a capacity of 480 and is housed in a building that is nearly a century old. The sprinkler system alone would cost $80,000, Kadish said, and that doesn't include the water hookup or plaster work.

''It would mean chopping up this old building and its historical moldings and ceilings to install sprinklers and water service from the street, which would involve digging up the sidewalks," Kadish said. ''We're talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars. When the economy is so horrible, like it is, when you throw that into the mix, it won't do anything for our business."

Senators relaxed the sprinkler requirement when the bill was being debated on the floor two weeks ago. An official at the state's Department of Fire Services did not know yesterday how many bars and nightclubs will be exempted by the change, though the department is in the process of figuring that out.

The Massachusetts Restaurant Association, which wields considerable influence on Beacon Hill, represents some nightclubs. But Peter Christie, the group's president and chief executive, said it did not actively lobby legislators to raise the sprinkler standard to 100. Rather, Christie and senators said, individual club owners successfully pushed for the change.

''It had to do with some folks in my district calling me," said Senate minority leader Brian P. Lees, who proposed setting the standard at 150 after the original legislation was filed. Lees, a Republican from East Longmeadow, described the final number as ''a fair compromise."

A spokesman for Senator Charles E. Shannon Jr., who proposed changing the standard to 100, said the Winchester Democrat ''seriously doubted whether the bill would pass at 50" and was seeking a compromise that struck a balance between the concerns of the business owners and public safety. The spokesman, Sean Fitzgerald, added that ''several fire marshals testified at the hearing that they thought 50 was too low and 100 was more reasonable."

Brewer and other authors of the bill also pointed out that it includes a ''two strikes and you're out" rule for bars and nightclubs with capacities under 100. If one of those establishments violates its occupancy limit twice in a 12-month period, fire officials will shut it down, and it will have to install sprinklers within 90 days.

Backers of the original proposal accepted the change, they said, because they believed it was crucial to get something on the books before memories of The Station nightclub fire dim.

James Gahan III of Falmouth, whose son Jimmy died in The Station fire and who pushed for the legislation along with other relatives of Massachusetts victims, described it as ''probably, under the circumstances, the best that we could hope for."

Al Gray of Dracut, whose son Derek died in the Rhode Island blaze, agreed that approving the weakened bill was preferable to waiting for lawmakers to reconvene next year.

''I don't want to lose any more people," said Gray, who appeared at a State House news conference with the bill's authors and several fire chiefs. ''Hopefully, we'll do more."

Globe correspondent Elise Castelli contributed to this report.