Fatal fire in MIT-owned high-rise building

A fire in a transformer vault in the basement of a high-rise office building owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology killed one utility worker. The fire filled both stairwells with smoke, forcing a number of the occupants to escape from the building by breaking a window and climbing onto the roof of an adjacent parking garage.

Read more in the Saturday, 12/9/06 edition of the Boston Globe

View news video of workers' accounts about escaping from the fire

2 Fatal Blazes Renew Focus on Fraternities’ Lack of Sprinklers

NOTE: This article appeared in the 12/8/06 edition of the New York Times.

At the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity house at Nebraska Wesleyan University, a fire killed one student and critically injured three others on Nov. 17.

By LIBBY SANDER

Published: December 8, 2006

CHICAGO, Dec. 7 — With fatal fraternity house fires in Nebraska and Missouri last month fresh on their minds, fire officials in a handful of college communities have intensified their push for city ordinances requiring fraternity and sorority houses to install sprinkler systems.

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Fraternity fire at the University of Missouri – St. Louis claims one student

Fire death is the third in less than two weeks at campuses across the nation

11/29/06
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Ed Comeau, Director
Center for Campus Fire Safety
www.campusfire.org
413-323-6002 (tel)
413-896-5718 (cell)

BELCHERTOWN, Mass., November 29, 2006— Brian Schlittler , 25, a senior, was killed in an early morning fire today at the University of Missouri - St. Louis, Missouri. The fire was reported at 3:45 in the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.

This fire death comes less than two weeks after two other campus fire deaths across the nation. On November 16, a student was killed in a fraternity fire at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Nebraska, and on the same day a student from the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, succumbed to injuries he received in an off-campus fire on November 4.

Nationwide, 92 people have been killed in campus-related fires since January 2000, as identified by the Center for Campus Fire Safety, a non-profit organization that compiles information on these fires. Almost 80 percent of the fire fatalities have occurred in off-campus occupancies such as rented houses and apartments. Common factors in a number of these fires include:

• Lack of automatic fire sprinklers
• Disabled smoke alarms
• Careless disposal of smoking materials
• Alcohol consumption

“It is vital that students learn the steps they can take to protect themselves, their friends and roommates from fire,” said Ed Comeau, director of the Center. Some of these include:

• Choose fire-safe housing, either on- or off-campus, that includes automatic fire sprinklers
• Make sure there are interconnected smoke alarms on every level and ensure that they are working at all times. Always evacuate whenever the alarm is activated.
• Know two ways out, no matter where you are – a residence hall, your house or apartment, a restaurant or a movie theater.
• If a smoke alarm is being activated needlessly, such as by cooking or steam from a shower, relocate the smoke alarm instead of disabling it.
• Properly dispose of smoking material by using ashtrays.
• After parties, check the cushions on couches and chairs to make sure there aren’t any lit cigarettes smoldering.
• Properly use extension cords and electrical appliances.

“Learning these fire safety behaviors will help people during their college years and throughout their lives,” said Comeau. “These are ‘life skills’ that might become ‘life-saving skills’ someday.”

More information on campus fire safety can be found at the Center’s Web site at www.campusfire.org, including a Campus Fire Safety Fact Sheet, compilation of all of the fatal fires in student housing identified by the Center, a list of questions that parents and students can ask when looking at student housing and video clips of training programs the Center has been involved with.

The Center for Campus Fire Safety, a leader in fire safety, is a non-profit organization that is devoted to reducing fires at campuses across the nation through education and advocacy.

###

Off-campus fire claims the life of University of Pittsburgh student

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Contact: Ed Comeau, Director

Center for Campus Fire Safety

www.campusfire.org

413-323-6002 (tel)

413-896-5718 (cell)

ecomeau@campusfire.org

  

Student was critically injured in fire on November 4

 

BELCHERTOWN, Mass., November 21, 2006— A student from the University of Pittsburgh, Richard Noble, died on Friday from injuries he suffered in an off-campus fire on November 4 according to a university official. 

 

Nationwide, 91 people have been killed in campus-related fires since January 2000, as identified by the Center for Campus Fire Safety, a non-profit organization that compiles information on these fires.  Almost 80 percent of the fire fatalities have occurred in off-campus occupancies such as rented houses and apartments.  Common factors in a number of these fires include:

 

• Lack of automatic fire sprinklers
• Disabled smoke alarms
• Careless disposal of smoking materials
• Alcohol consumption

 

“It is vital that students learn the steps they can take to protect themselves, their friends and roommates from fire,” said Ed Comeau, director of the Center.  Some of these include:

 

·         Choose fire-safe housing, either on- or off-campus, that includes automatic fire sprinklers

·         Make sure there are interconnected smoke alarms on every level and ensure that they are working at all times.  Always evacuate whenever the alarm is activated.

·         Know two ways out, no matter where you are – a residence hall, your house or apartment, a restaurant or a movie theater.

·         If a smoke alarm is being activated needlessly, such as by cooking or steam from a shower, relocate the smoke alarm instead of disabling it.

·         Properly dispose of smoking material by using ashtrays. 

·         After parties, check the cushions on couches and chairs to make sure there aren’t any lit cigarettes smoldering.

·         Properly use extension cords and electrical appliances.

 

“Learning these fire safety behaviors will help people during their college years and throughout their lives,” said Comeau.  “These are ‘life skills’ that might become ‘life-saving skills’ someday.”

 

More information on campus fire safety can be found at the Center’s Web site at www.campusfire.org, including a Campus Fire Safety Fact Sheet, compilation of all of the fatal fires in student housing identified by the Center, a list of questions that parents and students can ask when looking at student housing and video clips of training programs the Center has been involved with.

 

The Center for Campus Fire Safety, a leader in fire safety, is a non-profit organization that is devoted to reducing fires at campuses across the nation through education and advocacy.

 

Fraternity fire claims the life of 19-year-old student at Nebraska Wesleyan University

 

 

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Contact: Ed Comeau, Director

Center for Campus Fire Safety

www.campusfire.org

413-323-6002 (tel)

413-896-5718 (cell)

ecomeau@campusfire.org

 

Fraternity fire claims the life of 19-year-old student at Nebraska Wesleyan University

 

Three additional students are in critical condition

 

BELCHERTOWN, Mass., November 17, 2006— A 19-year-old male died in an early-morning fire in the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity and three others were critically injured, according to university spokesperson Sara Olson.  All are students at Nebraska Wesleyan University in Lincoln, Nebraska.  There were 39 people in the building at the time of the fire, reported Olson.

 

Nationwide, 90 people have been killed in campus-related fires since January 2000, as identified by the Center for Campus Fire Safety, a non-profit organization that compiles information on these fires.  Almost 80 percent of the fire fatalities have occurred in off-campus occupancies such as rented houses and apartments.  Common factors in a number of these fires include:

 

• Lack of automatic fire sprinklers
• Disabled smoke alarms
• Careless disposal of smoking materials
• Alcohol consumption

 

“It is vital that students learn the steps they can take to protect themselves, their friends and roommates from fire,” said Ed Comeau, director of the Center.  Some of these include:

 

·         Choose fire-safe housing, either on- or off-campus, that includes automatic fire sprinklers

·         Make sure there are interconnected smoke alarms on every level and ensure that they are working at all times.  Always evacuate whenever the alarm is activated.

·         Know two ways out, no matter where you are – a residence hall, your house or apartment, a restaurant or a movie theater.

·         If a smoke alarm is being activated needlessly, such as by cooking or steam from a shower, relocate the smoke alarm instead of disabling it.

·         Properly dispose of smoking material by using ashtrays. 

·         After parties, check the cushions on couches and chairs to make sure there aren’t any lit cigarettes smoldering.

·         Properly use extension cords and electrical appliances.

 

“Learning these fire safety behaviors will help people during their college years and throughout their lives,” said Comeau.  “These are ‘life skills’ that might become ‘life-saving skills’ someday.”

 

More information on campus fire safety can be found at the Center’s Web site at www.campusfire.org, including a Campus Fire Safety Fact Sheet, compilation of all of the fatal fires in student housing identified by the Center, a list of questions that parents and students can ask when looking at student housing and video clips of training programs the Center has been involved with.

 

The Center for Campus Fire Safety, a leader in fire safety, is a non-profit organization that is devoted to reducing fires at campuses across the nation through education and advocacy.

###

 

 

P.O. Box 1429 Belchertown, MA  01007   1-413-323-6002 (tel)  1-413-460-0092 (fax) info@campusfire.org

 

Conference highlights need for fire safety on campuses

Conference highlights need for fire safety on campuses

  By Jamie Schuman : The Herald-Sun
jschuman@heraldsun.com
Nov 7, 2006 : 11:30 pm ET

CHAPEL HILL -- The fraternity house fire that killed five UNC students a decade ago had one benefit, Chapel Hill Fire Chief Dan Jones explained at a conference on campus fire safety Monday.

It caused UNC, and colleges nationwide, to pay more attention to fire safety.

"We had our teachable moment the hard way," Jones told about 200 college administrators and safety officials in town for Campus Fire Forum 8.

The annual conference, which officials started in the wake of the UNC fire, is a way for campuses to share strategies to avoid tragedies. This is the first year the conference is in Chapel Hill, and it is here because of the anniversary of the fraternity fire.

Those attending the conference, which ends Thursday, are trading tips about best practices and how to promote the importance of fire safety to college administrators.

They also are looking at advancements in sprinkler and alarm technology. On Monday, they saw demonstrations of two mock student rooms that had been set on fire. One of the rooms had a sprinkler system, and the blaze there was extinguished within 30 seconds.

UNC's Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house, on Cameron Avenue, did not have a sprinkler system when the deadly blaze destroyed it and killed five students, on May 12, 1996. That day was commencement at Carolina and Mother's Day, and the confluence of events put the tragedy in the national spotlight.

UNC and Chapel Hill have been leaders in promoting campus fire safety since that day, Chapel Hill Mayor Kevin Foy said at the conference. All of Carolina's Greek houses now have sprinkler systems, which spray water and sound alarms. Still, some of its dorms do not.

And Jones and others worry that students do not remember the lessons of the Phi Gam tragedy, in part because the campus population is transient.

"It means little or nothing to the students today," Jones said. "We have to redouble constantly."

Nationwide, there have been 89 campus-related fire deaths since January 2000, according to the Center for Campus Fire Safety, which sponsored the conference. Alcohol consumption and lack of sprinklers were factors in many of those cases.

Denis Onieal, superintendent of the National Fire Academy and keynote speaker at the conference, said it is hard to get the message about fire safety across to administrators and students. That message competes with thousands of other messages, he said.

Onieal urged people to look at the strategies Mothers Against Drunk Driving uses. That group has had success, he said, because it partners with law enforcement officials and puts its campaign in an emotional and human framework.

Fire at Texas Tech-sprinkler save

A fire in a trash chute in a residence hall was controlled by activation of the sprinkler system.  More information here.

Close calls in Tempe, Arizona

I heard from the Tempe Fire Department (home of Arizona State University) that they had two very close calls.

In one fire, two students were severely burned in a fire started in a couch on balcony by smoking materials. Fire was detected, they thought they extinguished it and then two of the residents left. Fire broke out in the night and extended up the exterior. Two victims spent ten days in a burn unit with 2nd degree burns.

Second fire was in a couch on a porch at a house. Victims had to jump to escape the fire.

Alcohol was a factor in both fires.

No sprinkler systems in either fire. Smoke detectors alerted the occupants in the second fire. Smoke detectors were present in the first fire, but it is unknown if they played a role.

Fire Extinguisher Safety

Deputy Chief Paul Martin from the New York Fire Marshal's office and the Center for Campus Fire Safety was featured on the CBS Early Show with a demonstration of fire extinguishers.

Inside Edition story on campus fire safety

Inside Edition did a story on campus fire safety.  You can find the story online through the Center for Campus Fire Safety's Video on Demand page at http://campusfire.org/resources/video.html