Charred walls. Spattered concrete. Terrible injuries.
To prevent harm and destruction from a fire, Fairfield University has a sophisticated fire suppression technology in all the residence halls.
The threat of fires was reinforced two years ago, when three undergraduate students perished in a fire in a Seton Hall University dorm. After that tragedy, Fairfield University improved its fire suppression systems within the residence halls.
After a fatal fire at Seton Hall, “there was [a] call for installing fire suppression sprinklers in all residence halls. The construction of all buildings after 1987 included fire suppression sprinklers,” said William Schimpf, vice president of student services.
“After the Seton Hall fire, all of our traditional residence halls have been modified to include fire suppression sprinklers,” he said.
The sensitive technology of the system and pranksters in the dorms has resulted in numerous false alarms over the past few years.
Though alarms continue, the number has dropped from about 100 a semester to about ten, said Joseph Bouchard, fire marshal and director of Fire Safety Services for the University.
Six years ago, Bouchard and his staff implemented a new system in an effort to reduce the amount of false alarms on campus. Fire alarm pull-stations were relocated from near the doors of all residence halls to more central areas of the corridors as well as next to RA rooms. This has eliminated 80 percent of false alarms, according to Bouchard.
In addition, pre-action alarms, which are the plastic covers that protect the fire alarm, have also decreased the number of false alarms, he said.
Addressable fire alarm systems were also installed in all the dorms in the Quad, the apartment village and in some townhouses, said Bouchard.
These addressable alarms each contain a microprocessor that scans the air of a dorm room every 30 seconds. The advantage to these new systems, said Bouchard, as opposed to the older fire alarm pull boxes, is that the addressable alarm’s sensitivity can be monitored and adjusted via computer.
The results of these new measures have been felt dorm-wide, and especially in recent Fairfield fire safety statistics.
False alarms have also posed challenges to students, professors and administrators when they have gone off during classes, or even worse, during final exams.
“When this has created a problem during final exam periods, a fire watch is established by hiring firemen who patrol the corridors of classroom buildings,” said Schimpf. “During a fire watch, the alarm system is silenced.”
Fire officials have also noticed a dramatic drop in false alarms, especially malicious false alarms, in the past six years.
“I think since 9/11, just the fact that 300 some odd firefighters died in the World Trade Center, the mindset has changed, which is good. It’s about time,” said Bouchard. “So we’ve noticed a tremendous reduction in those malicious alarms.”
Fire has not been the only force to expel students from their dorms, however, as Campion Hall resident Tim Fater, ’05 found out in late October, 2002.
Fater, his roommate, Liam Hanley, and other Campion residents were evacuated at about 9 p.m. on a Monday night after a student threw a football and accidentally knocked off a sprinkler head, flooding the building from the third floor down.
“I thought, ‘our floor’s not going to get wet…'” said Fater, who lives on Campion’s first floor. “It leaked right through the ceiling tile, it went through my roommate’s bed, destroyed the futon, leaked on to the ground and destroyed the carpet.”
After the initial cleanup that lasted until 3 a.m., the two residents of Campion 115 began to calculate the bill: $600 worth of damage.
“The school didn’t pay for anything, we had to pay for everything and that kind of sucked,” said Fater, whose parents’ homeowners’ insurance policy had a $1,000 deductible.
“It was such an inconvenience but there was nothing we could have done…we just kind of had to make the best of it,” Fater said.
Aside from the difficulties they cause for administrators, professors, and Fairfield firefighters, students must ultimately bear the burden, as each fire drill drags them from their beds groggy, sleep-deprived, and sometimes, even wet.
“It was just bad luck – the chances of a ball being thrown up there and knocking the sprinkler off … that’s what happens when you’re in college and there’s a lot of people in the dorm doing stupid stuff,” said Fater. “As I say this I’m dribbling a ball in the hall myself.”
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