Firefighters are no longer stationed at a new student residence complex on the campus of UNC Asheville. The school said in a statement that sufficient repairs to the buildings have been made so that a 24-hour fire watch is no longer needed.
The five buildings that make up The Woods complex on campus opened in August. But just as the fall semester at UNC Asheville was set to begin, the complex was abruptly closed by order of the North Carolina department of insurance. Concerns lingered about fire safety issues in the complex, and in particular how students would be able to evacuate the buildings in the event of a fire as firefighters would be entering it.
Just a day after The Woods was closed, it was re-opened but Asheville firefighters were stationed there as a precaution at the cost of roughly $25-hundred a day to the school until fixes to standpipes, stairwells and other measures were completed. Those were finished this week, and firefighters have moved out according to the school, which in a statement said remaining work to add a sprinkler system in the unoccupied attics of the complex would be completed in late November.
