Fire Prevention on College and University Campuses

An important element of a college fire prevention specialist’s job is conducting training sessions. There are a number of different groups requiring annual training, which can pose a daunting task for a lone fire prevention specialist. These trainings need not be in depth and generally have similar requirements (see Table 4). Prior to initiating training, it is important to develop a fire evacuation and fire safety plan for your campus (see Table 5), as this document will help steer your training. It will also give you a point of reference to which you can direct others when questions arise pertaining to your training.

Fire Safety Training for Staff/Faculty

There are a number of ways in which faculty and staff training can be accomplished in a way that will not over burden the fire prevention department.  For smaller campus work units, such as staff members who work at your library, face-to-face presentations may be acceptable.  For larger departments, such as academic units that utilize full-time and part-time instructors, on-line training may be more acceptable.  For these units, interactive on-line training is not required, simply having the employees read a policy and sign an acknowledgement stating that they have received the training is sufficient.  Partnering with your information technology group can make determining who has signed off as having had the “training” and who has not can make your life much easier, as they will often be able to run information based on the acknowledgements that you have received.  This can usually be accomplished through your college or university’s survey tool, with the collection of NetID’s or employee identification numbers (avoid the latter if social security numbers are used as employee identification numbers).

Where online training is not an option but campus work units are too large to train face-to-face, “train-the-trainer” sessions are another acceptable alternative. By forming a cadre of designated “fire wardens,” and training them to train staff in their work units in fire prevention policies and procedures, you can ensure the training of a large number of employees with little effort. In this situation it is important to retain records of the initial “train-the-trainer” training and to teach your “fire wardens” to keep and send copies of records to your office.

Training should be catered to the department or group for which the training is being conducted. For instance, by virtue of their occupations a welder is more likely to encounter fire hazards than an average lecturer. Thus, it is more important to provide specific training to a welder in elements such as hot work permitting than it is to provide comparable training to the average lecturer. Nevertheless, there are professors that may use welding as part of their processes, such as those in industrial arts, jewelry making, scene design, and other areas (we will return to hot work training shortly). So, it is important that each position at the institution is evaluated to determine the kind of training each faculty/staff member needs. You may find assistance for this from your college or university human resources department or environmental health and safety department.

Partnering with your campus’s environmental health and safety office does not end with making determinations about job duties. Recent examples of campus-related laboratory accidents highlight the importance of departments (e.g., chemistry departments) receiving specialized laboratory safety training. Although the majority of this training falls outside of the scope of fire prevention and safety, the campus fire prevention official can take steps to include relevant fire safety instruction in existing laboratory safety training.

Fire Safety Training for Assembly Areas

Employees who work in assembly areas (e.g., ushers working in an auditorium) need additional training in addition to that listed in Tables 4 and 5. Specifically, employees working in these areas must develop a seating plan, including an occupancy load and an occupancy load limit. The occupancy load limit is usually designated at the time a building receives its certificate of occupancy; this certificate is usually available through your campus planning department. Occupancy loads can be determined by your AHJ if a question or concern exists. IFC 408.2.1 states that deviations from the proposed occupancy load are permissible so long as the occupancy load limit is not surpassed and the aisles are free from obstructions, including individuals. Also, an audible announcement must be made within ten minutes of the start of a show, giving the location of exits to be used in the event of a fire or other emergency.

Fire Safety Training for Residence Life and Resident Students

Resident students and others living on campus need to receive specific training for each residence hall, floor, and room. All elements listed in Table 4 also apply to resident students and to group overnight stays (e.g., summer camps or lock-ins). Residents should receive this training within 24 hours of moving in; this requirement also applies to summer camps and “lock-ins.”

In R-2 high-rises, an emergency guide stating the location, function, and use of fire protection equipment and appliances accessible to residents—including fire alarms, smoke alarms, and portable fire extinguishers—must be present. This guide should also include primary and secondary evacuation routes, and should be maintained and distributed to all residents. The simplest way to achieve this is through online systems. Montclair State University uses their online fire evacuation plan to achieve this; other institutions use postings on the back of doors (similar to what one would see in a hotel) to comply with this element of the code.

When training college students, it is important to think outside of the box.  Lecturing students will do little more than put them to sleep.  Developing programs that engage resident students is not only appropriate, but it is essential to ensuring their understanding of the fire code.  Such programs can be conducted with little cost to the fire prevention department, through the establishment of partnerships, the importance of which will be discussed in a subsequent section.

Programs include the Community (Resident) Assistant Fire Academy, poster contests in keeping with the NFPA’s annual fire prevention message, fire prevention trivia contests, and community outreach programs.  It is essential that fire prevention specialists get involved in their community.  Managers need to allow the fire prevention specialists to adjust their hours to allow various kinds of training, at various times of the day.

Few college students are accustomed to the nine-to-five schedule of campus employees. While full-time employees may be accustomed to attending training starting at eight in the morning, college students are rarely willing to attend programs at that time. Dealing with the realities of college life is essential. Students are going to have parties, drink, and make poor decisions. Guiding them to act safely and acknowledge the realities of college life is an important part of giving them the training they need.

Just as working with your staff members in large departments can be difficult, training each resident student within 24 hours of their move-in can be an insurmountable task for the fire prevention specialist. In these cases, it is advisable to use the community (or resident) assistants to provide fire prevention training to students during their initial floor meeting. By developing a curriculum that offers our community assistants “train-the-trainer” sessions, the burden of training large numbers of students single-handedly can be alleviated. As with all trainings, maintaining a record of the initial “train-the-trainer” session as well as subsequent trainings is essential.

Another way to overcome the difficulty of training large numbers of students is making fire safety training a required step for the residents prior to moving into their new rooms. One can use room condition reports, in which the students sign that their room is in acceptable order prior to moving in. At the bottom of these reports, one can place a section specifying that the resident has read and acknowledged your campus’s fire evacuation plan and that he or she knows where its staging areas and evacuation routes are located.

This information can be made accessible online or displayed on large poster board paper in the area where students sign in. Forms can be produced and printed on four-part NCR (no carbon required) paper, allowing the resident, the residence hall office, the campus’s office of residence life, and the department of fire safety to retain copies. Copies are forwarded to the department of fire safety after all residents have moved in or if room changes occur. This system has two benefits: First, it alleviates the fire prevention official from needing to train all residents individually. Second, it ensures that all residents, including those who transfer their rooms later in the semester, receive and acknowledge this training. The drawback of this system is the large amount of paper that needs to be managed.

Fire Safety Training for Other Populations

Off-campus students. A population often overlooked by campus-based fire prevention specialists is off-campus students. This includes both commuter students and, when housing is not provided by a college or university, Greek Life students (e.g., fraternities or sororities). Efforts need to be made to ensure their safety as well, as they are also members of your respective campus communities. Programs can be developed to achieve inspection and training initiatives in these areas. For instance, a fire prevention department can offer complimentary, nonbinding inspections of fraternity houses, offering suggestions to make these occupancies safer.

It would be wise to check with your college’s or university’s legal department to draw-up an advisory based waiver, where inspectors can check these houses, as well as the presence and functionality of smoke alarms and fire extinguishers, without opening the college or university up to liability.  Other programs can be developed to allow for outreach to these off campus community members.  The Resident Assistant Fire Academy can be altered to confront the realities of off-campus living. This is especially important given the realities related to Greek housing.

Crowd control managers. Training requirements are constantly changing, with ever more requirements being added annually. One such example is training for crowd control managers (CCMs), who need to be onsite during large scale events. These events include concerts, sports games, graduation ceremonies, and other events that may draw large crowds. This requirement is intended to put the responsibility on the respective college or university, requiring them to have trained personnel at each event. The training leads to specialized licensure. The first step to gaining this licensure is training your employees to thoroughly understand emergency personnel requirements when dealing with a large scale event.

Most of the training is to familiarize CCMs with emergency procedures such as evacuation. There is a venue-specific element to the training to ensure that crowd control managers are capable of performing an evacuation of the specific venue. If you followed the link for the Station Nightclub fire video listed in the Partnerships section, you can see just how masses react in emergencies. Some reports of this fire state that one of the bouncers prohibited patrons from leaving through an emergency exit door because he was told that no one was to go through the door. The purpose of CCMs is to control this mob mentality while knowing what emergency exits are supposed to be used. Further information on CCMs can be found at the Maryland State Fire Marshal’s Website. Their online training can give you a good idea of what this training covers and of specific items that can be adopted into your training.

Although this training is not required in all jurisdictions, it is not a bad idea to add elements of it or to adopt a full curriculum for individuals who are tasked with organizing large-scale events. Potential targets for this training include theater ushers, athletic staff, or others that may be working for your college or university during large scale events. It may be better to offer more training than is necessary than to offer too little training. The intent of this model is to provide a safe experience for campus community members and visitors, not to replace the fire prevention staff. Do not fear giving your constituents too much information—empower them to be safe!

Hot Work Training

In order to administer a hot work program, IFC 2601 et Seq. requires that the administrator be an approved, facility-designated representative who is trained, onsite, and responsible to ensure that hot work is being performed safely with measures in place to prevent fire and its spread. The campus fire prevention official can be designated as the hot work program administrator if your college or university opts to house the hot work permitting process under a single entity.

Training consists of understanding means for protecting combustibles from exposure to fire, including the removal or covering of combustibles, the covering of openings, general housekeeping, conveyor shutdowns, the covering of partitions and floors, other general precautions when performing hot work, and the location and use of fire protection and detection systems (including how to avoid accidental activation of the building fire alarm system). The administrators also need to be trained in fire watch procedures, including when and where they are required, what the role of fire watch personnel is, and how to select and use fire extinguishers and/or hose streams. As with other forms of training, this can consist of face-to-face sessions for small groups or train-the-trainer sessions for large groups. Online training systems are also available through insurance companies.

FM Global offers free online training in areas such as managing a hot work permit program. They also offer prepackaged hot work permit systems, which are free. Both the training and permits can be used to help establish a hot work training system for your campus. You will still need to conduct training specific to your site and operations, including the use of fire extinguishers, but these free products offer an excellent starting point.

Fire Drills

Finally, as part of training the fire code requires that fire drills be conducted at various intervals depending on the use group or occupancy of a building (see Table 6). As with any training, fire drills require records. Table 7 lists the numerous requirements that must accompany each fire drill record.

Actions to be Taken in the Event of a Fire

Specific actions taken by employees are governed by federal and state laws. Check with your jurisdiction to determine what applicable laws affect the actions of your employees. In most states, individuals who are tasked with firefighting duties require additional, specific training and adequate firefighting and personal protective equipment. This section assumes that the members of your campus community are neither trained nor equipped to fight a fire.

Facilities staff in the event of a fire. The responsibility of facilities staff during a fire is to exit the building. While they are exiting the building, they should try to guide other campus community members to the nearest exit. Thus, it is important to train them in the exit and evacuation routes for their work areas. If these staff members are expected to use a fire extinguisher, they need to be adequately trained in the use and limitations of fire extinguishers. If a fire is noted but no alarm is sounding, the staff member should activate the building’s fire alarm system by means of a manual pull station while exiting the building. Once the staff member leaves the building, he or she should report to a designated staging area. Any information pertinent to the incident (e.g., size or location of a fire, community members who refused to leave, etc.) should be reported to arriving emergency responders or by a telephone call to your campus’s emergency dispatch center, depending on your campus’s policy. These procedures can be covered as part of the required annual training.

Facilities management in the event of a fire. Facilities managers are responsible for ensuring that all of their employees are accounted for in the event of a fire. This is done through maintaining accountability and knowing where one’s employees are supposed to be working at any given time. The manager can contact the employee by means of a cell phone or in person. Any missing persons should be reported to arriving emergency personnel or by means of a telephone call to your campus’s emergency dispatch center, depending on your campus’s policy. To this end, facilities managers should be trained on the same staging locations and exit procedures as their staff. These procedures can also be covered as part of the required annual training.