On Tuesday, April 4, a 20-year-old sophomore at St. Joseph's College in Maine was arrested for arson in an early morning fire that left more than 100 students homeless. The fire damage was confined to one room, but the entire floor suffered a notable smoke damage, according to Timothy Leary, Vice President for student affairs at St. Joseph's.
Early this year, a dorm fire at Seton Hall University on January 19 left three dead, 58 injured and 12 hospitalized, with five in critical condition, four of whom were burned over 50 percent of their bodies.
Sunday March 19, fire erupted in Bloomsburg University Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity. This fire left three members of the fraternity dead, and many students and college faculty and administrators in shocked disbelief -- it is a repeated, haunting tragedy of 1994's large fire at the exact location that left five students dead.
The burning house collapsed onto itself and the three students in it were killed in the blackened rubble.
"Its not supposed to happen twice, not in the same place," university spokesman and the fraternity advisor Jim Hollister said in an interview with The Associated Press.
While the Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania fraternity fire raged, a simultaneous one occurred at Ferris State University, many miles away in Michigan. The dorm fire hospitalized one woman and left two others with minor injuries.
With the rising number of cases of college dorm fires across the country, Dartmouth has been increasingly more watchful of fire safety, according to Woody Eckels, director of Residential Operations.
Although Eckels described that Dartmouth was "as well equipped if not more equipped in fire safety than most colleges in the country," 19 of 66 Dartmouth undergraduate buildings remain without fully functional sprinkler systems.
The Ripley-Woodward-Smith cluster will have sprinklers installed in its summer renovations.
Of the other 16 buildings that will remain unsprinkled, all are residence halls except for Gamma Delta Chi fraternity. Among the unequipped include the heavily populated River and Choates clusters.
Eckels told The Dartmouth in a previous interview that a budgeting plan that began in 1992 stipulated the addition of sprinkler systems in each renovated building, a goal which will take five more years to fulfill.
The College exhibits its current fire safety preparations by conducting regular fire drills throughout the campus. Eckels described that the College conducts four fire drills throughout the school year.
A regular fire drill consists of three nights dedicated to the residence halls and two nights dedicated to the CFS houses. Drills normally begin at 7 p.m. and lasts until 9:30 p.m. The Residential Life staff checks that the building is completely evacuated during the drill sessions.
The Office of Residential Life expects to conduct a fire drill run for the residential halls across campus on today and tomorrow.
The College prides in its sprinkler system that it has thoroughly installed in residential halls and CFS houses throughout campus. Automatic fire sprinklers are individually heat activated, and tied into a network of piping with water under pressure. When the heat from the fire reaches the sprinkler a certain temperature (usually 165 Fahrenheit), a liquid filled glass bulb will shatter to open that single sprinkler, releasing water directly over the heat source.
Sprinklers operate automatically in the area of the fire origin, and effectively prevents a fire from growing to a dangerous size, while simultaneously sounding an alarm. The sprinkler system is reliable as it does not rely upon human factors such as familiarity with escape routes or emergency assistance. The sprinklers go off automatically to reduce the danger, according to fire safety literature.
Although smoke, the most common cause of death to occupants of burning buildings, is produced when sprinklers a extinguish the fire, the quantity of smoke is less than what would be produced by an unsprinkled fire.
There are smoke detector systems in every room and in every public lounge areas within each dorm. The smoke detectors are programmed to go off when the heat in the given room or lounge rises to 155 Fahrenheit. When the system smoke detectors in public areas go off, the fire alarm goes off to signal the evacuation of the building and the fire department is notified to arrive immediately.
Despite such precautions, Dartmouth has experienced several small fires within the past year, including a minor fire in Streeter from three burning candles. The fire was limited to the room of origin and there was not a great damage to the room.
There was also a fire eruption last fall in Wheeler, due to the presence of an illegal appliance. The fire was limited to the room from which it originated, and left the three residents of the room thrown out of their room for six weeks for room renovation. The sprinkler system was largely responsible for keeping the fire limited to one room.
Eckels said that it is a shame that such fires erupt from the presence of illegal appliances that students keep within their rooms. During breaks between terms, the Residental Life staff check each room to confirm the proper functioning of the smoke detectors, check for the presence of halogen lamps, and to make certain that door hinges work so that the doors close all the way.
During this process of room inspection, if an illegal appliance were to be discovered, the student would be immediately directed to remove the appliance by keeping it in controlled storage or to face a 50 dollar fine.
A third fire occurred this past winter break at Chi Gamma Epsilon fraternity causing heavy property damage.
"Dartmouth has a very good and reliable fire safety system. One thing that I would like to publicize is what students can and cannot bring to campus to keep in their dorms." Eckels said. "Many times fires erupt from the presence of such illegal appliances. The list of illegal appliances are specifically listed in the student handbook. Students should take time out to read it carefully."
