Center director adds to fire safety debate

To the Editor:

I would like to offer the following thoughts in response to Assistant Vice President Kremer's letter, "OSU on top of fire safety," in the Nov. 16 edition of The Lantern.

I recently spoke at a conference of university officials. As with all of the presentations that I make, I emphasize the positive aspects of prevention, detection and suppression, or "The Circle of Life."

At one point, a member of the audience asked why I advocate the use of sprinklers when "everyone knows that it is smoke that kills." He is right in one respect-a majority of the people that die in fires are killed by smoke inhalation and not by direct contact with the fire. However, there is one major drawback to the basis of his argument - sprinklers do not make a difference in saving lives.

This is an argument that I have heard a number of times, from a number of different people. Following the fatal fire at Southern Adventist University last spring that killed one student, even fire officials were reported to have made statements to the effect that sprinklers would not have made any difference in the outcome of the fire (a mistaken conclusion, in my opinion).

Over 20 years in fire safety, including serving as a fire fighter for the Amherst Fire Department, a corporate fire protection engineer, a fire protection engineer for the Phoenix Fire Department and the chief fire investigator for the National Fire Protection Association, I am convinced of the benefits of sprinklers in saving lives. Sprinklers will put out the fire, stopping the production of smoke which kills and injures the occupants.

Sprinklers are only a part of the equation. Many buildings do have either fire alarm systems or smoke alarms in them. These provide the vital early warning about a fire so that the occupants can escape and the fire department can begin responding. However, these systems can only save lives if they are operational.

So often, in the fatal fires, the smoke alarms are either missing or inoperable. Or, in some residence hall fires, the building fire alarm system is not operational. This most recently occurred at a school in Mississippi where the fire alarm system failed to operate and the occupants had to bang on doors to alert one another. An almost identical situation occurred last April at another school in Mississippi and when the fatal fire at ATO fraternity broke out in August 2004, it was reported that the fire alarm system had been disabled and did not operate.

The third part of the equation is fire prevention. If the fire does not occur in the first place, then neither the detection or suppression component has to be called into action. Or, if the fire does occur, the occupants know the actions to take to protect themselves and the effects of the fire can be minimized. Fire prevention, however, is the component that is so often overlooked, especially for students that live off-campus.

People living off-campus frequently do not receive the fire safety information that they should, either from the community or from the school. Since almost 80% of the fatalities occur in these rented houses and apartments, it is clearly where the greatest risk lies.

All three components are equally important and necessary to give the highest level of protection to students. They complement and backup each other and work in concert to provide a fire safe environment.

Ed Comeau Director Center for Campus Fire Safety