Here’s why Syracuse University won’t have to change its smoke detector system following state legislation

Although a New York state law passed last month requiring all smoke detectors to have 10-year batteries, Syracuse University does not have to make any changes to its smoke detector system.

In a statement released by the New York State Assembly last month, New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo required that all homes and businesses have working smoke detectors with 10-year batteries. The act takes full effect on Jan. 1, 2017, and applies to all buildings on the SU campus.

But although SU will comply to the new law, it will not need to make any major changes to its current smoke detector and fire alarm systems. Nearly all of the thousands of smoke detectors on campus are “state-of-the-art,” and updated regularly, said John Rossiter, manager of the Department of Public Safety’s Fire and Life Safety Services.

Rossiter said almost all of SU’s buildings include proprietary smoke detector and fire alarm systems that are interconnected within the building. For example, when an alarm activates, a signal is sent to the building’s fire alarm system, which initiates an alarm throughout the premises. The alarm then sends a signal to the Department of Public Safety and an emergency communications center, which then contacts local fire departments, he said.

Newer campus buildings — such as the Martin J. Whitman School of Management, the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and Ernie Davis Hall — were constructed with the proprietary system already integrated. Older buildings, such as Carnegie Library and the Hall of Languages, had the system installed during renovations. The Carrier Dome and buildings on South Campus are also equipped with state-of-the-art systems, Rossiter said.

That means virtually all of SU’s detectors are up to date and well ahead of the new law. Thus, the cost to become compliant with the new regulation will be negligible, Rossiter said.

SU smoke detectors are checked individually each year by both the city of Syracuse and the New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control. Campus fire alarm systems are either automatically recharged or replaced regularly and backed by batteries that provide 24 hours of power in the case of a malfunction, he said.

From 2009-13, fires in homes without smoke alarms caused an average of 940 deaths per year, or 38 percent of home fire deaths, according to a national report published by the National Fire Protection Association in September.

The report also found that, across the same period, 46 percent of smoke alarms that did not activate were due to a missing or disconnected battery. Twenty-four percent were due to a dead or discharged battery.

“We’ve seen time and again that working smoke alarms can be the difference between life and death,” Firemen’s Association of the State of New York President Robert McConville said in a statement. “This law will no doubt go a long way towards ensuring New York is a safer place.”