Campus Fire Safety Tips

College students living away from home should take a few minutes to make sure they are living in a fire safe environment. Educating students on what they can do to stay safe during the school year is important and often overlooked.

SAFETY TIPS

  • Look for fully sprinklered housing when choosing a dorm or off-campus housing.
  • Make sure you can hear the building alarm system when you are in your dorm room.
  • If you live in a dormitory, make sure your sleeping room has a smoke alarm, or your dormitory suite has a smoke alarm and carbon monoxide (CO) alarm in each living area as well as the sleeping room.
  • If you live in an apartment or house, make sure smoke and CO alarms are installed in each sleeping room, outside every sleeping area, and on each level of the apartment unit or house. For the best protection, all smoke alarms in the apartment unit or house should be interconnected so that when one sounds, they all sound.
  • Test all smoke alarms at least monthly.
  • Never remove batteries or disable the alarm.
  • Learn your building’s evacuation plan and practice all drills as it they were the real thing.
  • If you live off campus, have a fire escape plan with two ways out of every room.
  • When the smoke, CO, or fire alarm alarm sounds, get out of the building quickly and stay out.
  • Stay in the kitchen when cooking.
  • Cook only when you are alert, not sleepy or drowsy from medicine or alcohol.
  • Use battery-operated flameless candles. They can look, smell, and feel just like real candles.
  • Check your school’s rules before using electrical appliances in your room.

SAFE CHARGING

  • Always follow the manufacturer’s instructions.
  • Only use the battery and charging cord that is designed for the device.
  • Do not charge a device under your pillow, on your bed, or on a couch.
  • Do not keep charging the device or device battery after it is fully charged.

FACT

  • Fires in dormitories are more common during the evening hours, between 4 p.m. and midnight, and on weekends.
  • Roughly eight out of ten fires in dormitories are started by cooking equipment.