Official: Yorktown must install sprinklers

The State Fire Marshal's Office wants Patriots Point to install sprinklers where campers sleep aboard the aircraft carrier Yorktown -- or else discontinue the enormously popular program at the cash-strapped attraction.

In a letter this year, Fire Marshal John Reich wrote to Patriots Point that "existing conditions create an imminent danger to both the occupants of the Yorktown and first responders."

The letter also said the military attraction has been "extremely fortunate in experiencing two decades of operating without an incident."

For May alone Patriots Point welcomed more than 2,500 campers, mostly Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts, to stay overnight in the same bunks where servicemen once slept.

The letter instructed Patriots Point to stop using all sleeping areas without an emergency escape and rescue opening complying with code, and to install an approved sprinkler system throughout residential areas.

The letter said the fire marshal ordered Patriots Point to make those changes in 2008 and learned this year that the attraction never did.

Patriots Point officials suggested that a 1990 order allows the museum to continue its current operations, but the fire marshal argued that the decision is no longer valid because it was made by a panel that has been abolished.

The fire marshal's letter added that Patriots Point should "view sprinkler protection as an investment and not a liability."

The matter now rests in state Administrative Law Court, where Patriots Point appealed the fire marshal's most recent order. Officials with the fire marshal's office declined to comment on the case.

Patriots Point Executive Director Dick Trammell did not answer general questions about the Scouting arrangement -- including the number of campers, the revenue they generate and the frequency of inspections onboard the Yorktown -- citing pending litigation.

The Post and Courier filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking those answers.

Bill Rogers, executive director of the S.C. Press Association, said Patriots Point should comply with the request. "I think those things are all public record and have nothing to do with legal issues involved," Rogers said.

Legare Clement, Scout Executive for the Coastal Carolina Council of Boy Scouts of America, called the Yorktown the second-most-popular campsite in the country among Scouts, trailing only the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico.

Clement said Scouts from first grade until their 18th birthdays come from other states with their troops or their families to spend a weekend touring the Yorktown and other ships in the Patriots Point fleet. He did not know about the lawsuit.

In 1990 an appeals panel decided that installing sprinklers would cost millions of dollars, effectively killing the overnight camping program which, at the time, provided 10 percent of Patriots Point's budget.

In his recent appeal, Patriots Point attorney Bill Craver wrote that "it is the law of the case and has not been overruled."

Craver also argued that the fire code provisions apply only to new construction and not historic structures, unless they present "a distinct hazard." Classified as a National Historic Landmark, the Yorktown includes a comprehensive fire protection plan.

Craver also wrote that since 1990 Patriots Point has made significant changes, including implementing mandatory fire drills, installing a smoke-removal system and a modern fire alarm system and adding emergency lights and exit signs and fire-safe bathroom fixtures and trash cans.

Reach Allyson Bird at 937-5594 or abird@postandcourier.com.