Benedict College Moving Students Out Of Dorm Fire Marshal Says Is Unsafe

Columbia, SC—Instead of heading to class on Monday, some Benedict College students headed across Columbia to move their belongings to their new homes. Benedict had been using an old hotel as a dorm, but the county fire marshal issued an evacuation order last week, saying the building was an immediate threat to the life and safety of the students, mainly because it has no sprinkler system or working fire protection system.

So the college has found an apartment complex that can house all of the students who had been living in the off-campus dorm and is now moving the students in.

Sophomore Hilkiah Williams says he’ll be more comfortable at the apartments because the old dorm was unsafe if there were a fire. “You’re not going to be able to stop it because we have no sprinklers. We’re not going to be able to, you know, put out the fire, so kids might get left in the room. It could cause some serious damage. Kids could get killed,“ he says.

Benedict doesn’t know yet whether it will fix the problems at the dorm and eventually move the students back, says spokeswoman Kymm Hunter. That’s because the county zoning commission says the property is not zoned for use as a dorm. If it won’t grant a variance, there’s no sense in the college spending the money to put in a sprinkler system.

So why did Benedict move the students in to begin with, if it’s not zoned for use as a dorm and it didn’t meet fire codes? Hunter says, “We had an agreement. We had an agreement with the zoning commission and they wanted us to take care of certain things and we did. Make sure that smoke detectors worked, and we did. The fire alarms, and we did.“ She says there was miscommunication between the zoning commission, the fire marshal and the college.

She says the old dorm also has working fire extinguishers and a 24-hour patrol. But the college has not given up a possible court fight over the issue and is now focused on moving the students.

Benedict senior Tierra Green says she didn’t feel unsafe in the old dorm, but likes the new apartment. “They have like dorm directors that’s living close by and resident assistants here to actually make sure that the safety is kept to a standard and, as well as they’re probably going to bring in police officers to make sure that the students are safe and secured here.“

The school is also giving excused absences to the students who are moving. Junior Catherine Thompson says, “The only thing that I was a bit concerned about was the classes that I was missing, but I have excuses for that so I will be able to maintain my lessons when I return back to class.“