A dorm room went up in flames outside the Student Union this past Wednesday as part of a safety demonstration geared towards educating students about fires in residence halls.
The fire, started only by a small candle flame igniting an empty pizza box, engulfed the mock dorm room in less than three minutes.
"It showed me that just a little thing can spark a fire, and then the whole room's gone," said Pryanka Sharma, a freshman undecided major. "It was so fast. The whole thing's destroyed."
The speed of the fire's destruction, amount of smoke produced and intense heat generated startled many of the students who gathered to watch the simulation.
"Now I realize that the smoke would probably prevent me from getting out," Sharma said. "I know I have things in my dorm that shouldn't be there, and I'm going to take them out now."
The demonstration appeared to be effective in educating students, showing that time is limited when fire is involved.
"I probably would have taken stuff and taken my time," said Monica Kutil, a freshman undecided major. "But now, I would probably just forget my stuff and run."
Two other demonstrations took place inside a trailer provided by the New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Safety.
One demonstration showed how sprinklers react to strong heat, while the other taught students how to safely crawl in a smoke-filled room. The demonstrations, along with the safety fair in the Student Union, were a part of Health and Safety Awareness Week at UB.
Lieutenant Kevin Volz of the Getzville Fire Department (GFD) said that educating students on fire safety is a serious matter.
"Last year, across the United States, there were 17 (fire-related) fatalities on university campuses," Volz said.
The national average for campus fire fatalities has averaged 12 to 15 for the last six years, while national campus fire-related injuries reached 200 last year. UB has averaged two fires a year for the last three years, according to Volz.
Both Captain Scott Preston of the GFD and Tom Hetherington, a fire protection specialist from the NYS Office of Fire Prevention and Safety, said that campus residences equipped with rigorously inspected fire safety systems tend to have fewer fires in general, and therefore much fewer incidences than homes off-campus.
"Off-campus is where we have a lot of fatal fires," Hetherington said.
The Office of Fire Prevention and Safety makes annual inspections of the fire safety systems of college campuses and residence halls.
"Life-saving is always first," Hetherington said, stressing that his office is not only concerned about the lives of people in the fire, but firefighters as well.
The Department of Environment, Health & Safety Services at UB also advised that students treat all fire alarms as if there were a real fire, respect all fire-safety equipment and fire-detection devices and exercise caution while cooking. The point most emphasized, however, is that students should not stop to try and collect possessions while a fire is going on.
"A lot of the time, people's perceptions of fire are not accurate," Hetherington said. "They think that they have time to get their stuff and get out. A fire doubles (in size) every thirty seconds."
James Guy, fire and life safety manager of Environment, Health & Safety services, was pleased by the various reactions to the simulated dorm room fire.
According to Guy, this year's dormitory resident advisors have undergone a mandatory five-hour training session on fire safety, which involved putting fires out using fire extinguishers.
Guy emphasized the importance of treating fires as a serious and personal matter.
"Most people think a fire only happens to someone else," he said, "'it's never going to happen to me.' But we all live with the danger."
