With winter starting to invade the Upper Valley, College dormitory chimneys are beginning to contribute to the smell of wood smoke in the air that makes many students long for the comforts of a roaring fire.
There are 172 dormitory rooms with fireplaces with the College, according to the Office of Residential Life. Despite causing frequent fire alarms, the fireplaces are treasured amenities.
"I've used my fireplace three times already," Cecille Divino '97 said. "It's awesome. Everyone says you should take advantage of your fireplace, so we did."
Divino said she and her roommate organized their entire room in Ripley Hall around their fireplace and hung a picture above the mantel.
"We've even roasted marshmallows," she said.
Dormitory fireplaces come equipped only with a screen to prevent ashes from getting in the rest of the room, according to Woody Eckels, director of residential operations for the College. After that, students are on their own.
The College does not furnish rooms with wood or fire stokers to help start a fire, he added.
"Students can get wood by looking in the classified section in the Valley News," Eckels said.
Rob Ellis '93 said he uses his fireplace "every now and then" and gets his wood from his aunt in Vermont.
Students who do not use their fireplace said a lack of firewood and general lethargy prevented them from lighting fires.
"I don't feel like dragging wood up three flights of stairs to light a fire," Steve Villaneuva '94 said. "They also set off the smoke alarms."
The College has not had any fires resulting from students using fireplaces, but the fireplaces have led to a number of false alarms, according to Captain Mike Doolan of the Hanover Fire Department.
Most of the false alarms "come from students who forget to open the damper," Doolan said.
The College has about 12 fire alarms a year caused by smoke from fireplaces, Eckels said.
The false alarms have led administrators to question whether the fireplaces should be bricked up.
"The fire department would like to see the College close down the fireplaces because of the false alarms," Eckels said. "The firemen are forced to repeatedly respond to emergencies that aren't there."
But "every time we discuss closing the fireplaces, someone in the hierarchy feels it is part of the Dartmouth experience to have fireplaces in the room, so they stay open," Eckels said.
Each false alarm costs the College $100, Eckels said. Dartmouth is allowed three false alarms per building before the fire department charges the College.
The College suffers five or six false alarms a week, most of which are caused by student smokers, defective smoke alarms, burnt foods, fireplace smoke and practical jokes, Eckels said.
The College hires a private company, Black Magic Chimney Sweeps of Lebanon, N.H., to clean the fireplaces, Eckels said.
The chimneys are cleaned on a rotating basis, Eckels said. Every year, Black Magic comes in and cleans a different set of fireplaces.
Eckels offered some safety tips for using the dormitory fireplaces.
"If you keep combustible items 36 inches away from the fire and the screen in place and you keep the damper open, then it is a very safe thing to have a fire in your room," Eckels said.
Eckels also said students should build small fires, rather than cramming a lot of wood into the hearth.
Seventy-four rooms in the Gold Coast have fireplaces, the largest amount in any cluster. Wheeler-Richardson and Rip/Wood/Smith are the other clusters on campus that have fireplaces.
Fireplaces are also located, in smaller numbers, in rooms in New Hampshire, Hitchcock and Russell Sage halls.
