Vohnne-5, No. $5 THE GEM The Student voice of the University of Prince Edward Island ARCHIVES Thursday, January 14 1988 FIRE DOORS AND SPRINKLER SYSTEM TO BE by Derrick Webber TO ELIMINATE the danger of toxic smoke from another service tunnel fire, it has been decided to install small fire doors and an automatic sprinkler sys- tem throughout the tunnel system and to brick off en- trances to the tunnels from buildings on campus. in October a_welder’s torch set insulation in tun- nel piping ablaze, sending toxic smoke through the en- tire tunnel system to each building on campus. Dal- ton Hall received the most smoke damage, but all build- ings on campus connected to the tunnel system were evac- uated. Don Coles of the UPEI Physical Plant says that the fire doors will be located along the main tunnel which runs behind Steele and Dal- ton Halls and in the Robertson library. They will seal the entrances to secondary tunnels that lead from the main to each build- To fur- ther impede the possibility of smoke getting into build- ings, the now open entrances front of ing on campus. where piping and electrical conduits enter each building will be sealed, probably with brick. A heat-triggered sprin- kler system will also be put n place to dowse any fire hat may occur. “These should bring the tunnel up to or above the fire) code of any building on ampus”, says Coles. “The smoke instrusion to the de- gree it happened before will ot be able to happen.” Because the work in the unnel system is as a re- sult of a wood-heat project of the PEI Energy Corp., JPEI will not have to pay or the new safety measures. JPEI will only have to pay or bricking of each entrance © buildings. The Energy orp. is installing heat pipes hat will eventually heat the INSTALLED Agricultural Research Sta- tion and K-Mart plaza with steam generated at UPEI’s new wood chip heating plant. The tunnel fire halted in- stallation of the pipes just two weeks before it could have been completed. Coles says that once the new fire safety measures are in place, at the end of January, work New film society starts year with“Faustus Bidgood” IN on the pipes can begin again. As the damage caused by the fire, Coles that telephone and security alarm systems for says have been permanently re- installed. A primary elec- trical cable should also have been in place by now but the wrong replacement ca- ble arrived and has to be re- A new film society has been organized on campus. The UPEI Film Society re- places the PEI Film Soci- ety, an off-campus organiza- tion that until last year ex- hibited films in the Duffy Ampitheatre. Brian Collins, one of the coordinators of the new society says that they are interested in showing non- specialized films with popu- lar appeal. “We want to exhibit TUNNELS ordered. Until then, a tem- porary power cable is still in place. There is bad news for spelunkers Stu- made it a hobby to explore the tunnel on campus, though. dents who have system late at night by en- tering through manholes will ae films that are _ entertain- ing, new, and of interest to the student body,” he says. Collins says the Soci- ety is looking for “good films, Canadian films and classics that are not generally shown anywhere else on PEI.” As for showing special- ized films, such as a series all by one director or writer, Collins says that popular ap- peal should be the deciding factor. wy don’t think there is a big enough population base here to do specialized films. They have to be popular. You can pick 20 films by one director and show them but maybe only 2 of them are en- tertaining.” Students are to be a ma- jor part of the new Film So- ciety. Collins hopes that bas- ing it on campus will keep the society going, and the energy of interested students will help. “We need people who have ideas about the films find that although a few new manholes will be dug, they will With the entrance from residences be all locked. or other buildings sealed as well, it seems a long time tra- dition among students will come to an end. a they want to see, people who have time to do publicity and organization.. We also need people the night of the per- formance to take tickets and run the projector.” Besides simply exhibit- ing films, Collins says the So- ciety could be active in other ways if there was interest. Tt it did more than just show films,” he says. ‘The Society could also be a film discus- would be great if sion group, or even do film production.” The Society will be show- ing ten films in total this semester. All will be shown Sunday nights in the Duffy Ampitheatre, beginning Jan. 17 with “The Adventures of Faustus Bidgood” at 7:30 pm. This film, directed by David Jones of the New- foundland comedy troupe CODCO, Collins describes as similar to Monty python and SCTV. It is “a minor beau- rocrat’s fantasy of ruling the empire of Newfoundland.” Tickets for each film are sold the night of the perfor- mance, or subscription tick- ets for all ten films are avail- able from the Student Union office in the Barn. $25.00 for non-students, $20.00 for stu- Students interested in joining the So- ciety can call the Student Union. m dents and seniors. NATIONAL WEEK OF ACTION SEE PAGE 3