WARNING: SINCE THIS IS AN ARTICLE IN PROGRESS, NOT ALL INFORMATION HAS BEEN DOUBLE-CHECKED/VERIFIED.
On Monday, January 25, at 1:05 p.m., a fire alarm in the Social Hall rang, forcing the evacuation of 400 to 500 students and faculty out into the cold, making Monday even more miserable. However, there was no fire, and thus, no real reason to evacuate.
Workers had inadvertently placed a ladder in the path of a beam detector, setting off an alarm, explained Joel Nayder, Assistant Manager of Campus Safety and Security, who summarized the alarm incident as “an accident.”
The fire department actually did not have to come out and does not have the call in their records. The reason behind this is unclear but the fire alarm call may have been cancelled by the workers, Fire Chief James Eggert explained.
False fire alarms are actually a rare occurrence, Nayder explained. There have been four to five alarms pulled without a fire since 2001, when he first started working at Dominican University. There were 29 fire alarms in total last year, but only two or three significant fires since 2001. Most of the 29 total fire alarms last year as well as the significant fires were related to maintenance or construction activity.
There are three types of detectors on campus: smoke detectors, heat detectors, and beam detectors, Nayder explained. Smoke detectors, logically, detect the amount of smoke in an area. Heat detectors measure the “rate of rise.” The temperature of a fire can rise to about 200 to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
Beam detectors are the detectors used in the Dining Hall and the Social Hall because of their uneven ceilings. This is so that a smoke detector does not have to be placed in each square indentation in the ceiling which would cost more. A beam detector shoots a light beam across an area; if it senses a disruption, an alarm will go off.
Students reported how often they hear the fire alarms go off. Sophomore Alfredo Rodriguez said “I heard it once last year…well...last semester was very frequent….about one fire alarm per every two or three months…but I do hear about them going off from the residents.” He said since he is a commuter, the disturbance the fire alarms usually cause him is “nothing, I’m usually not in class.”
“I heard one once this semester so far…then I want to say like three or four…so four or five so far this year” said Junior Dominic Schwab, who is a resident. “I think I only left my room once or twice…I usually ignore them, especially if I hear them during the day” Schwab said.
Bloggy part:
I went to the River Forest fire station this afternoon after classes and interviewed Fire Chief James Eggert. After an awkward first meeting where I forgot to explain myself, I explained what I was doing and he warmed up tremendously. He seems to be a really great guy. After I told him that I was an explorer at the Western Springs Fire Department, he even showed me around the station!
Anyways, Fire Chief James Eggert warns students who stay inside during fire alarms that fires can spread quickly. He showed me a video of a room where a Christmas tree caught on fire and the room was taken over by the fire in less than a minute. Eggert said he understands that it's cold outside sometimes and it's inconvenient to leave, but he said that students should at the very least get onto the first floor or go to another building. You have to make SURE it's not a fire. Why risk your life? Isn't it better to be inconvenienced and stay alive? Eggert actually travels with a fire alarm, treating it as an extra life insurance.
Eggert and I ran into two other firefighters while he was showing me the way out and I was able to get a pretty good quote from one of them, a certain Lester Telkamp.
Seriously, I love firefighters, and not for the typical reason, though that's nice too :P
Good reporting!
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