ALISA OPPENHEIMER
Special to The Leader
The department of Environmental Health & Safety & Sustainability, as well as University Police, would like the campus community to be made aware of changes made to fire safety drills for this year.
In an email sent out before the start of this semester, Chief Brent Isaacson, and Director of Environmental Health & Safety & Sustainability Sarah Laurie, attempted to prepare students by providing information on the changes in procedure for the upcoming year.
“The primary differences in procedures are the change in evacuation locations and the addition of ‘simulated conditions’ during fire drills,” said Laurie.
Over the summer, the Fredonia Fire Department, University Police and EH&S&S sat down to discuss the best evacuation locations for each individual building on campus.
According to Laurie, there were issues in previous years regarding where students and staff went during fire drills. “In the past, occupants would gather in parking lots and along sidewalks where the Fredonia Fire Department or other emergency responders needed to move vehicles or gain access to a building,” she said. “The new locations allow everyone to provide easy access to the building for those who are responding to deal with the issue at hand.”
The email included an attachment of a list of emergency evacuation locations for each building on campus.
“Simulated conditions” are the other main change in fire safety drills.
These simulated conditions are a way to practice alternative scenarios if one were to ever encounter a fire emergency on campus.
To assist with that, University Police may, for instance, block an exit.
This requires one to think of an alternative way out.
“The simulated conditions for fire drills are designed to be more beneficial to those who live, work and attend classes here on campus by ensuring that each person knows more than one way to get out of their building and has practiced it enough that, in a potential state of panic, they don’t become unable to reason through their circumstances,” said Laurie.
With that, it is important that both students and staff take these changes seriously.
In order for these implemented ideas to work and in order to be prepared, each individual member of the community needs to take accountability.
As for students, Laurie said no email in regard to health and safety should be left ‘alone.’
As for the campus as a whole, Laurie said, “knowledge is key here.”
Everyone should take their daily schedules into consideration while implementing fire safety protocol.
“We don’t want people obsessing with worry over the ‘what ifs,’ but being aware of your surroundings, and knowing what you can do to keep yourself and others safe before an emergency happens is really important,” said Laurie.
If anyone has any questions or would like more information, the campus website provides several pages of safety information, as well as resources on campus to learn more.