CHARLES PRITCHARD
Staff Writer
At approximately 3 a.m., students living in the Andrews Complex on Feb. 21 were rudely awakened to the noise of the fire alarm going off. Half-dressed students carrying blankets and bags under their eyes poured out of Hendrix, Hemingway, Schulz and Igoe Hall while the rest of the campus slept. For many, these late night fire alarms are anything but uncommon.
The reason is not what many may think. Some students on campus like to cry “fire drill” when this happens but the true culprit for this night was not a fire drill.
It was because a student burned food that they were cooking that night.
“When the fire alarms go off that late, it is not a fire drill,” Lieutenant Randall Moore of the University Police said. “The new fire alarm system, it’s very sensitive. Years ago, it may not have been, but for safety reasons it does not take much to set it off.”
Throughout the months of January and February, the majority of fire alarms going off across the dorms can be attributed to one of two things: burnt food and electrical malfunctions. Over the course of two months, five fire alarms have been because of burnt food and seven alarms have been malfunctions.
“Malfunctions are about on average,” Moore continued. “It can be the heat detectors and the batteries going and things like that.”
“I don’t get the sense that it’s a big problem. I know the facilities services does a lot of preventative maintenance when they can,” Office of Residence Life Associate Director Kevin Hahn said. “It’s important for our smoke detectors and CO detectors to be working. It seems recently that there have been more alarms, and I know in those quads that the way those fire alarm systems are set up is that if it goes of in one building, it goes off in all of them.”
Students living in the Kirkland (Kasling, Grissom, Disney and Eisenhower Hall) and Andrews Complex know this fact all too well.
“It’s tough, but the reason for that is because all the buildings are connected and it would make sense for safety reasons to get everyone out of that complex,” Hahn continued.
With such a sensitive alarm system, capable of being set off by either a burned grilled cheese sandwich or because the batteries started to go, students might wonder if something should be done about the alarms. Others, however, appreciate the way they function now.
“I actually like how sensitive the alarms are,” Cassandra Rubin, junior early childhood education major and Hendrix Hall resident assistant said,” because it keeps us safe, which is my number one priority.”
With the campus dorms seeming safe with the sensitive alarms, the easiest way to cut down on the number of fire alarms through the semester is to simply be mindful of your food.
While students might be hungry for a midnight snack, it’s important to remember the simple things.
“I think we can try and keep reminding people that if you’re cooking your food, stay with it,” Hahn said. “Don’t walk away. Anything can happen if someone walks away.”
It’s important to follow the standard operating procedure during a fire drill and not hold it against the campus police, the Office of Residence Life or anyone else. It’s their job to ensure you stay safe now and in the future.
But next time you go to make that late night snack, be sure to keep an eye on it, or you might just end up talking a long walk into the cold with everyone else in the quad.