Fire alarms set off by burnt popcorn and Easy Mac seem to be part of the college experience, but the Bloomington Fire Department is trying to change this cycle.
BFD is increasing fire safety education efforts to decrease the number of fire alarms on campus, especially since many freshmen live in units with attached kitchens this year.
Fire Prevention Officer Tom Figolah said BFD began education efforts about two years ago and has since seen a 50% decrease in fires on campus. Figolah said his goal is to visit all the residence halls to provide fire safety education to students.In early February, BFD set up booths with safety information in Wright Dining Hall. Figolah said BFD also does fire extinguisher training and hands only CPR training.
One of the goals BFD outlined in its 2019 Public Safety Report was to increase education programing with students. For two years, BFD has partnered with IU Emergency Management, the Office of Insurance Loss Control and Claims, IU Police Department and IU Environmental Health and Safety to improve fire safety education efforts on campus.
Figolah said fire alarms have remained an issue, despite education efforts. Since 2015, Forest Quad and Read Center are the residence halls with the most calls with 225 fire-related runs to Forest and 162 to Read.
One residence hall BFD focused on was Union Street Center . With 303 kitchens across the center's seven buildings, there was a concern for incoming freshmen living there.
“We hit them hard with fire safety and fire prevention efforts in August and September,” IU Emergency Management Coordinator Cherie Anderson said.
Anderson said the number of calls for the 2019-20 school year have been low.
Spruce Hall has also had problems with fire safety beginning last semester.
Spruce Hall resident assistant Meg Chapman said she and other RAs have noticed that many ovens on floors’ kitchens are left on after they're used. The problem became persistent on some floors, and RAs discovered ovens routinely left on the hottest setting.
“I think a lot of the issues probably arise from the fact that our building is all freshmen now, and a lot of them are cooking on their own for the first time,” Chapman said.
Figolah said the Dean of Students Office is also alerted when there is a fire alarm. He said the office investigates who, why and for what reason caused the alarm to go off.
Forest Quad resident Jose Huerta said he felt annoyed by the number of fire alarms and their inconvenient timing.
“I find the fire alarms a bit too much especially when it involves minor things setting it off,” Huerta said.
Read Center resident Jayda Payne said she has experienced six fire alarms this year.
“It’s not cool to have them during the night when you know people are showering or studying,” Payne said.
Eigenmann Hall resident Addison Milton said she thought about staying in her residence hall when alarms became repetitive and inconvenient. According to Protect IU, Indiana law requires a complete evacuation of the building when a fire alarm goes off.
“I thought about it but never actually did,” Milton said. “It’s super annoying especially when I’m in bed and I have to walk down thirteen flights of stairs.”
CLARIFICATION: A previous version of this article left out associations other than BFD that are involved in on-campus fire safety education. The IDS regrets this error.
