Mock-dorm room burning highlight of annual Fire Safety Awareness Day
Within 15 seconds the fire had spread to most of the furniture, and within 45 seconds, the whole room was ablaze.
Over a hundred students watched in awe at how fast the fire spread on Greene Street; they’d been lining up since 11 a.m. Around 12:13 a.m. Friday, the Columbia Fire Department lit a mock-dorm room on fire.
Minutes later, black smoke had taken over the structure as it went up in flames.
The fire was intended to show students how easily a fire could start and how quickly it could spread in a standard room. Inside were fire hazards typical of students’ dorm rooms.
The fire was one part of Fire Safety Awareness Day, which included other stations that educated students on how to prevent — or deal with — fires.
One showed them to use a fire extinguisher correctly while another had a sliced up Chevrolet Malibu to show them how to escape a car in the event of a fire or an accident. Students also had the chance to race firefighters to put on their fire safety gear and to nab free T-shirts and Firehouse Subs coupons and sandwiches.
Kirsten Kennedy, Student Housing’s executive director, started the fair at USC; she brought the idea from University of Missouri after she saw there was a need for it on campus.
Kennedy said she’d seen the event grow over time and has noticed an increase in student participation each year.
“[When the fire alarm goes off in residence halls] students contemplate if they should really leave, but when they see some thing like [the mock-dorm room fire], they think, ‘Why would I stay in my room if something like this could happen?’” Kennedy said.
The goal of Fire Safety Awareness Day, Kennedy said, is to teach students how to prevent fires and to give them the skills to handle one if a fire breaks out.