Yielding to the forces of modernization, the Radcliffe Department of Buildings and Grounds has retired the Radcliffe fire ropes, unique to the college and part of its history for 40 years.

Acting on the basis of a study by experts which pronounced the fire ropes obsolete, the department removed the ropes, which were in all the older dorms and off-campus houses, during Christmas vacation.

In their place, "modern safety features" have been installed: sprinkler systems in the older dormitories, smoke screens (doors to prevent the spread of smoke to other parts of the building) in a number of dormitory corridors, and, in some off-campus houses, fire ladders to several of the corner rooms.

Related to Accident

Ralph B. Gates, director of Buildings and Grounds, said that the accident suffered by Radcliffe freshman Carmen E. Irizarry-Ramirez, while she was taking her fire rope test in the Radcliffe gymnasium during Orientation Week this year, had "some bearing" on the decision to replace the ropes.

Miss Irizarry-Ramirez suffered a broken vertebra when the rope which she was descending snapped and she fell nearly nine feet to the floor of the gymnasium. Miss Irizarry-Ramirez is out of the hospital and has been atending classes regularly.

The fire ropes were checked periodically but were not used in the monthly fire drills each dormitory is required to have. Instead, according to Mr. Gates, they were only to be used "as a last resort, the third means of egress after the front and back stairways." Neither the new fire ladders nor the sprinklers will be used in routine drills either.