The Boston Fire Department granted reprieves to all but three of the 67 city bars and nightclubs facing closure yesterday under a three-year-old state law requiring them to install fire sprinkler systems.
The vast majority, city officials said, were granted extensions of 30 to 60 days after presenting signed contracts with sprinkler-installation contractors, although many had failed to follow through on previous promises to install the systems.
Fire officials say they expect things to be different this time. If the systems are not fully installed and operational when the extensions expire, officials say they will immediately shut the establishments.
"I think we got their attention now," said District Fire Chief Dennis Keeley, who has been spearheading enforcement.
Others received waivers, after convincing the city that they were a restaurant or function hall and thus exempt from the law, or reducing their capacity to less than 100, which was the threshold to comply with the law.
The city shuttered three establishments yesterday, all old neighborhood favorites: Milky Way Lounge & Lanes, a bowling alley and nightclub on Centre Street in Jamaica Plain; Kay's Oasis, a function hall on Blue Hill Avenue in Dorchester; and Packy Connors, a century-old, family-owned Irish pub on Blue Hill Avenue in Roxbury. According to fire officials, none of them submitted adequate documentation to justify an extension or waiver.
The Fire Safety Act of 2004 required entertainment venues with capacities of 100 people or more to install fire sprinklers by yesterday, but gave local fire departments the right to grant extensions of up to one year after the deadline.
The law passed after 100 people died in a swift-moving blaze at a Rhode Island nightclub that had no sprinkler system.
State Fire Marshal Stephen D. Coan, who helped draft the law, said yesterday that he had hoped that extensions would not be necessary.
"Many clubs have worked in the past three years to see sprinklers installed," he said. "I would express some disappointment that so many owners waited until the last moment."
Of the 285 establishments in Boston required to install sprinklers under the law, 173 had not done so by last Friday. Of those, 106 were in the process of installing them, and the remainder had been slated to be closed.
In the past seven days, Keeley said, the vast majority of the 67 bar owners facing closing hired architects and installation contractors, secured permits, and submitted enough documentation to satisfy fire inspectors that they are now committed to installing sprinklers. Fire officials could not provide exact figures on how many received extensions based on this documentation and how many received waivers.
Many of the Boston bars that received extensions in recent days had submitted similar documentation before - contracts or letters of intent showing they intended to install sprinklers - but never followed through.
The law required that such documentation be submitted to local fire departments by May 2006 but did not provide for enforcement or penalties until yesterday's installation deadline.
When fire inspectors visited the bars during regular inspections, they received boatloads of excuses, Keeley said. " 'That guy charged too much,' 'I'm working on another one,' 'I'll get on it tomorrow.' " It wasn't until recently, he said, that many owners realized the shutdown warnings were real.
"Sometimes, no matter how many times you hold their hand and tell them, they still don't get the message," Keeley said.
When he walked into Packy Connors in Roxbury yesterday and presented a bartender with an order revoking the bar's occupancy permit, he said stunned patrons stopped their conversations and stared.
The bar owners could not be reached for comment.
Kathie Mainzer, co-owner of Milky Way Lounge & Lanes, said she would appeal to state fire officials for an extension. The 15-year lease on her business comes up next July and so far she has not been able to renew it. She said she could not affort to install the $70,000 sprinkler system in a building she may occupy for only another eight months.
Mainzer said she hopes the state Automatic Sprinkler Appeals Board will force local authorities to grant her a one-year extension, which is permitted under the law.
"We believe that should cover unusual cases like ours when there is no lease," she said.
All of the bars granted extensions yesterday will have another inspection in 30 days. Those given 30 days will have to have fully operational sprinklers, while those given 60 days will have to show that they are adhering to the agreed timeline.
"If you're not compliant, we will take your permit," Fire Commissioner Roderick J. Fraser said.
Al Gray, whose son died in The Station nightclub blaze in West Warwick, R.I., in 2003, says he is sickened by bar owners' lack of compliance.
"One hundred people burned to death," he said. "I find it unbelievable that people just don't want to do the right thing."
Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com.
