Fire Safety & Alarms
FIRE SAFETY
Keep the safety of everyone in your community in mind at all times.
- Fires in residence halls occur most often between 5-11 pm and on weekends.
- Smoke alone often doesn’t wake you- it can make you sleep harder.
- Cooking equipment is involved in 75% of reported residence hall fires.
For more information on any of the violations below, please refer back to the Guide to Community Living.
You may sleep through a fire without warning – if a detector is covered evacuation time may be limited.
Any open flame poses a threat to student safety.
Only use approved surge protectors with an on/off switch.
Don’t plug scores into other chords, as this can overload circuits.
Removal or tampering with sprinkler heads will result in flooding.
Don’t tamper with or hang items on the sprinkler.
Fire doors prevent the spread of fire in the event of an emergency to allow safe exit from the building. Propping allows the flame to spread faster.
Obstructed exits, such as doors and hallways can be dangerous during an evacuation. Keep all building exits clear.
FIRE ALARMS
We work across the semester to assure that our alarms are functioning properly and doing what they should.
Our fire alarm systems are set at the lowest sensitivity that they can be per fire code. Our team receives a notification every time there is an alarm and keeps an eye on trends and how we can best respond.
Your community director will meet with residents individually who may unknowingly be the cause of repeat alarms.
Due to the size of our communities, our rooms use photo particle sensors, meaning they look for particles in the air that could be smoke.
Unfortunately, those sensors can’t distinguish smoke from steam, hair spray, etc. that could end up in the detector based on student behavior. Often these are what students will refer to as false alarms.
Triggers for these alarms can include:
- discharging a lot of propellant in the room (air fresheners, cologne or perfume, body sprays, disinfecting cleaning sprays, etc.)
- cooking in the room
- propping of bathroom doors when showering allowing for a buildup of steam
- using appliances that create steam or heat (such as irons or hair dryers) too close to sensors
Due to the size of our communities, our rooms use photo particle sensors, meaning they look for particles in the air that could be smoke.
Unfortunately, those sensors can’t distinguish smoke from steam, hair spray, etc. that could end up in the detector based on student behavior. Often these are what students will refer to as false alarms.
Triggers for these alarms can include:
- discharging a lot of propellant in the room (air fresheners, cologne or perfume, body sprays, disinfecting cleaning sprays, etc.)
- cooking in the room
- propping of bathroom doors when showering allowing for a buildup of steam
- using appliances that create steam or heat (such as irons or hair dryers) too close to sensors