Fire alarm system to be
installed in UH library

If all goes as hoped Monday, the air horns that now serve as fire alarms at the University of Hawaii-Manoa's Hamilton Library will soon be gone.

A new fire alarm system, with sirens and strobe lights, was to be installed at the flood-damaged library today and tested Monday morning.

The new $35,000 system will replace the air horns, extra security patrols and fliers given to patrons explaining the fire alarm problem. The makeshift fire alarm system has been in place since the library reopened to the students and faculty on March 29.

"If you're just relying on air horns and everything, there's so many things that could go wrong," said Junior Gappe, the university's fire safety officer.

"Safety is one of the most important things in the building, so we're happy that we'll have a working alarm system again," said university librarian Diane Perushek.

UH-Manoa spokesman Jim Manke said that for April alone, the university spent $53,400 on extra security guards who patrol the library because of the lack of a working fire alarm system and who sign in patrons because an arsonist was setting small fires in the library.

The money paid for 10 security guards patrolling the five floors of the building and for security at the entrance to the library.

Before the Oct. 30 flood, only two private security guards patrolled the library, Manke said.

He said that since the sign-in system began, the arsonist has not struck again. Eighteen small fires had been set in the library the week after it reopened.

Perushek said staff and UH security officials will be meeting to discuss keeping some of the additional security even after the alarm system is in operation.

The main building at Hamilton Library had been closed since an Oct. 30 storm flooded the basement where Hamilton's electrical system was located. A generator outside the building now provides power until the electrical system can be overhauled.

The new fire alarm system is another step in the library's recovery from the flood, Perushek said.

A library recovery task force has been formed to make recommendations about what to do with the empty basement, she said.