Students ignore alarms at own risk
Mark Freeman
Issue date: 9/16/08 Section: News
|
While students may find fire alarms annoying at best, they are the first line of protection against a growing threat.
A 2007 report by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) noted that dorm fires have become more prevalent. "The estimated number of fires in campus housing has risen dramatically in recent years, from a low of 1,800 fires in 1998 to 3,300 fires in 2005. From 2000 through 2005 there were 39 deaths and nearly 400 injuries," the report said.
With this in mind, Michael Viola, assistant director of the Physical Plant, offers one piece of advice: "Evacuate every time. Period."
Viola's advice may seem extreme, considering that most of the campus alarms are triggered due to cooking-related incidents. He noted that students have set off the alarms when cooking bacon or making popcorn.
But the CPSC report explained "cooking equipment causes 72 [percentage] of dorm fires." The CPSC recommended that students cook in designated places only and to never leave cooking equipment unattended. The consequences may be lethal. In 2005, a dorm kitchen fire took the life of Kelly Weimer, a junior at Southern Adventist University in Tennessee.
Saint Mary's College employs smoke detectors and fire alarms all over campus. When an alarm goes off, the building is "dumped," or evacuated. An outside company which monitors the alarms dispatches the fire department to the College and also alerts the Public Safety department.
Viola explained that the fire department comes out every time an alarm goes off. "Fire safety is very important to them and to us," he said. The fire chief decides whether to send a truck all the way to the campus if the alarm is determined to be false. Viola said Saint Mary's keeps in contact with the fire department via radio.
During the fall semester last year, various campus buildings were evacuated 64 times, according to Viola. During this past summer, the buildings were evacuated 29 times, mostly due to accidental alerts set off by contractors.