By Allan B. Colombo

Whether you travel a lot or only from time to time, always call ahead before making reservations and ask whether the hotel or motel you intend to stay in has a fire alarm system, in-room smoke detectors, and a sprinkler system. Although this sounds easy at first glance, most of the time you will find that the employees who work there know very little about the fire-safety precautions incorporated in the facility where they work.

"The last time I called a property to find out if it was sprinkled, the clerk assumed I was talking about lawn sprinklers," says Albert B. Sears, Jr. with the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA), Quincy, Ma. "NFPA doesn't book meetings in facilities that don't have sprinkler and smoke detector protection. When I explore a property to find out what automatic fire protection features are available, I need accurate, complete information. It would be a big help to have it in the same directory where I look to find the other conference features I need." NFPA is urging the hospitality industry to incorporate these systems in their facilities.

Hotels should be equipped with automatic fire detection systems in all common area of the facility. This should include a generous supply of horns, sirens and strobe lights that make noise and flash when a fire is detected. In addition, these facilities should be equipped with individual smoke alarms in each room to assure that a sleeping person is awakened when a fire starts in their room.

The National Fire Protection Association recommends that before making reservations for your stay, be sure there's adequate fire protection in the building. Sprinkler systems also are important because they can dowse a fire before it gets out of hand.

"When sprinklers are present, the chances of dying in a fire are cut by 1/3 to 2/3 compared to fires where sprinklers are not present. When measured by the average number of civilian deaths per thousand [from 1992 to 1991], the reduction associated with automatic suppression equipment is 65% for hotels and motels" (John R. Hall, Jr., June 1993).

The National Fire Protection Association recommends that when traveling,