Texas A&M

Campus Fire Safety Month got underway at Texas A&M University on September 2 when the school’s department of health and safety and the department of residence life hosted a fire prevention demonstration.
The mock dorm room fire graphically illustrates what can happen when a fire begins in a dorm room. The demonstration also shows how quickly fire can spread and threaten life. The room is set up to contain all the materials normally found in a dorm room. The fire is set and allowed to burn while public safety, firefighters, and students watch. As the fire engulfs the room, students see first-hand how dangerous fire is and how they could be injured.
Students also learn how to prevent fires and safe practices. The mock dorm room fire was part of Campus Fire Safety Month.
According to James Rainer, environmental safety manager at the university, nearly 500 students attended the event and participated in other programs designed to raise awareness among college students. “At the end of the event yesterday it was requested by the Director of Residence Life that this become an annual event,” said Rainer.
This year, Texas A&M worked with the Center for Campus Fire Safety (CCFS), NFPA, and Domino’s Pizza to coordinate the event. The local Domino’s in College Station provided pizza through the event. NFPA and CCFS had fire safety materials available for students to read and refer to back at their dorm.
More information on the day, including additional photos and videos can be seen here. There is also a video posted on their site. According to Rainer, if you click on the fire picture on the left side with the caption “Dorm burns on Simpson” about half way down the page it opens a new screen. The video window is on the right.”
There’s also more information on the local newspaper’s web site.

Georgia Tech

A large crowd of students and faculty watched a Georgia Tech "dorm room" come down in flames September 9 afternoon. The planned burning was part of a fire safety demonstration organized by the school and various state and local agencies.
After firefighters lit up the mock dorm room, it burned down in less than two minutes. Campus Fire Marshal Michael Hodgson is charged with publicizing fire safety at Tech. He says most college students haven’t had any fire safety education since they were in elementary school. Read the rest of the story here.
To help teach essential fire-safety skills and instill awareness, colleges and universities across the country are holding Campus Fire Safety Month events. This year, CCFS, NFPA, and Domino’s are sponsoring special events with college and university public safety officials at schools that included Georgia Tech.
Other educational events included fire extinguisher training and a grease fire suppression demonstration put on by the staff at the Dobbins Air Reserve Base.
Guest speakers included State Fire Commissioner John Oxendine and State Fire Marshal Alan Shuman.
Home Depot donated the materials for the mock dorm room, while Domino’s Pizza and Coca-Cola contributed food and drinks to help publicize the event. CCFS partner SimplexGrinnell donated two IPods for a raffle at the event.
In the photo at the left, students receive a pizza delivery from Domino's, which was one of the event sponsors this year.

Babson College

Babson College in Wellesley, MA held a success for Campus Fire Safety Day earlier this month. More than 100 students participated in the various events designed to raise their understanding of fire and life safety. The day’s events included fire extinguisher training, fire truck and equipment demonstrations, “Great Escape” fire evacuation training, materials from the Center for Campus Fire Safety and the National Fire Protection Association.
During Campus Fire Safety Month, students will learn that fires do happen in campus-related settings and students need to protect themselves no matter where they live. August and September are typically the worst months for fatal campus-related housing fires. Unfortunately, many college students do not realize how quickly a fire can occur.
To help teach essential fire-safety skills and instill awareness, colleges and universities across the country are holding Campus Fire Safety Month events. This year, CCFS, NFPA, and Domino’s are sponsoring special events with college and university public safety officials at schools that included Babson College.

Students and faculty at George Washington University participated in Campus Fire Safety Month by hosting a safety fair at the university. Students took advantage of the information available from the Center for Campus Fire Safety (CCFS) and the National Fire Protection Association. CCFS is focusing on campus building fire safety features and alcohol and fire safety. CCFS notes that the consumption of alcohol or use of other drugs lowers the probability of quick and logical evacuation and often is a contributing factor to the cause of the fire.

According to the Adirondack Daily Enterprise, students at Paul Smith's College gasped and backed away as a fire rapidly lit up a dorm room on campus on September 24, 2009.
"In less than two minutes, the structure was still standing, but all the contents of the room were burned or melted, including a flame-retardant mattress, which was mostly just blackened springs when the fire was put out.
The fake dorm room was constructed for the purpose of burning it down to teach students at Paul Smith's College about how quickly fire can spread, as part of Thursday's campus safety fair.
"State fire inspector Chris Taylor, who is assigned to the Paul Smith's campus, told the students who gathered to watch the blaze that fire spreads a lot more rapidly than it does in the movies and on TV, doubling in size every 30 seconds to a minute."
Click here to read the rest of the story.

SUNY Potsdam Fire Protection Specialist Christopher Taylor from the New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control recently gave SUNY Potsdam resident assistants and resident directors a close up look at fire safety protocols as part of their training.
According to a news story in the Gouverneur Times, "RAs spent a recent morning learning about fire prevention and safety, what to do in the event of a fire and how to effectively use three types of fire extinguishers.
"RAs are responsible for a variety of services from informally making academic suggestions to formally enforcing College policy. They provide social and educational programming, emergency response, crisis intervention, conflict mediation and referrals to campus and community resources."
Click here to read the rest of the story.

According to timesunion.com, spectators were invited to watch a dorm room burn on Wednesday at the University at Albany.
"As part of national Campus Fire Safety Month, school officials built an 8-by-12 residence hall "room" out of wood. Then they torched it on a spot between the fine arts and arts and sciences buildings.
"The room contained furniture and fixtures as well as commonly found hazards. Its destruction was intended to demonstrate fire safety procedures and tips as well as the possible effects of unsafe behaviors."
Read the rest of the story here.

The Hartford Fire Department (HFD) and Trinity College co-sponsored an event to demonstrate the consequences of dorm room fires.
According to The Trinity Tripod, "National Campus Fire Safety Month, an initiative now in its fifth year, has motivated colleges to teach their students the dangers of dorm room fires and the importance of reacting quickly if such a fire should occur. The initiative was established by a group of parents who had lost children in campus fires."
Click here to read the full story.

For Campus Fire Safety Month, the UK Fire Marshal’s Office, with the help of the Lexington Fire Department, built two model dorm rooms to demonstrate to University of Kentucky students how quickly flames can engulf a room. Both rooms contained typical dorm items, including snack food boxes, clothes and posters.
Click here to read the full story.

The University of Missouri had its annual “Fire Factor” campus fire safety program, primarily directed at students as part of Campus Fire Safety Month. As part of the program, staff constructed a mock student room and then set fire to it to show how fast fire can spread.  This is the second year, they have burned a mock room and it has proved to be quite popular with the students.
"Typically we have around 1,500 people," said Lt. Shawn McCollom, assistant fire marshall to the Columbia Fire Department and liaison to MU. The event was open to the public, with invitations to students from other area colleges.
Read more about the event here.