Fire Inspector Claims 'Inadequate' Protection at Radcliffe Dormitory

Student complaints that 20 Walker Street is a "fire trap" brought an investigation by the Cambridge Building Board and an order for the college to take necessary steps immediately after the school year ends.

Cambridge Inspector Charles Sprague inspected the dormitory during spring vacation and said yesterday that he has ordered Radcliffe to install smoke screens on the second floor landings of both staircases.

Sprague said he was accompanied in the inspection by William Gates, Radcliffe Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds, who last night denied that any inspection had been made.

Radcliffe told students two years ago that 20 Walker would no longer be used as a dormitory after Moors Hall was opened in the fall of 1949. The dormitory was closed that year, but a miscalculation of the size of the incoming student body forced its reopening last fall.