To educate students about fire safety, the Boston Fire Department set a mock dorm room on fire to show how quickly flames spread in the parking lot opposite Warren Towers on Friday, the final day of Boston University’s Safety Week.
“We wanted to have something people can relate to,” said Laura De Veau, assistant director of Student and Staff Development for the Office of Residence Life.
While De Veau said the blaze – which drew at least 100 students – was not specifically organized in response to the two deadly fires that killed three students near South Campus in February, the demonstration targeted off-campus dangers.
BPD Deputy Chief Joseph Fleming said 80 percent of fire-related deaths happen off-campus.
“I think that there’s a certain amount of freedom that everyone has when they live off campus that says, ‘I’m on my own now,'” De Veau said. “But … I still have a responsibility to the people in and around my home, and people need to realize that.”
The staged room was smaller than a normal dorm room, and it was crammed with furniture.
“This is a very real thing that often people become complacent about and say, ‘That’s not going to happen to me,’ and in reality, a fire can happen to anyone’s home or dorm room,” said fire-safety specialist Chris Rowell.
Within three minutes of ignition, half of the room was engulfed in flames and was only extinguished shortly after destroying a recliner and leaving a hole in the wall.
“I couldn’t believe how quickly everything went up in flames,” said Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences junior Michelle Dellascio. “It just shows how everything can be destroyed whether you start the fire or not.”
Fleming also stressed the importance of effective smoke detectors. Photoelectric detectors can sense when smoke blocks light while ionization detectors use an internal current that particles of smoke disrupt, setting off the alarms. Fleming said ionization alarms often go off too late.
Fleming said most off-campus residences use ionization detectors rather than the photoelectric ones seen on-campus, and urged students to switch.