Bismarck Tribune

By TONY SPILDEBy TONY SPILDE

North Dakota's first State Capitol burned down, you'll recall.

Happened three days after Christmas in 1930.

Two years later - with the sight of the flames and smell of the smoke still in everyone's mind - construction began on the current building. Naturally, every effort was made to keep it as fireproof as possible. Fire hoses were installed on each of the tower's 19 floors and in the legislative wing. Each story was closed off from the next to keep fire from spreading.

But wires and pipes have crept through the firewalls in the last 72 years.

"Over time, mostly in recent years, (firewalls) have been breached," Pam Sharp, director of the state's Office of Management and Budget, said. "It became really obvious and we thought it was important to make the improvements."

In four days, the state will begin advertising for bids on a fire-suppression system for the Capitol. Construction will begin on the 16th through 18th floors during the first week of July and will finish on the ground floor in April 2007. Displaced workers will be housed in other areas of the Capitol and at off-campus locations, said John Boyle, Facility Management director.

The 2005 Legislature approved a bond package that included about $3.2 million for the fire-suppression project.

"I don't know why it wasn't done before,"said Boyle, who's been with the state four years. "Since I've been here, this is something we wanted to get done, and the timing was right - there was excess funding. What we're looking at are life-safety issues and, secondly, building-preservation issues."

Boyle said the Capitol has a fire alarm system, and during drills the tower can be evacuated in about 11 minutes. But there is currently nothing in place to automatically douse a blaze, he said.

Crews will install the sprinkler system, new ceiling tiles and some new lighting in the tower and the legislative wing, which includes the House and Senate chambers. Work will begin outside the building in May, when a new water-supply line will be connected to a fire pump, Boyle said. That line will be connected by standpipe to each floor's sprinkler heads.

There will be a preconstruction meeting March 16, and bids will be opened March 30, Boyle said.

Work on each floor will take about five weeks. The state is negotiating with a couple of off-site locations to temporarily House employees. Room also will be made on the 18th floor, once work there is completed, and elsewhere on state property, Boyle said.

"It'll be an inconvenience, but I think it's for the greater good,"Boyle said.

(Reach reporter Tony Spilde at 250-8260 or tony.spilde@;bismarcktribune.com.)