Everyone remembers trooping outside into the freezing cold or the pouring rain during a fire drill. Now, students and faculty get to enjoy this exciting event four times a year instead of two. That means that there will be a fire drill somewhere on campus about every two and one half days, said Assistant Director of Residence Life Jeff Akers.
The Westerville Division of Fire and Otterbein personnel met in February to discuss increasing the number of drills.
In September, the Ohio fire code revised the amount of fire drills R2 class buildings have to run each year. This classification includes college and university buildings. At Otterbein, this applies to dorm buildings and fraternity/sorority houses.
An increase in campus fires could be a reason for the change. "They look at fires across the country and I think they realize the increasing number of fires in dorms, fraternities and sororities is going up. I think this is how they answered, by upgrading the code," said Battalion Chief John Bokros.
The goal of a fire drill is to document how many people are in the building, how long it takes to evacuate, conditions during the drill and any problems encountered during the drill.
The Otterbein staff members who monitor the drill submit a report to Bokros, who reviews the total procedure.
The drills are scheduled in advance, so although it may seem like they are planned for inclement weather, any uncomfortable conditions are totally coincidental. However, the drills are supposed to be conducted in different types of conditions to make sure no problems arise.
Akers said students do not enjoy the practice alarms already conducted, let alone an increased number. "They are very angry when we have a practice fire drill," he said.
Akers attributes this negativity to the fact that the alarm system is very sensitive and there have been quite a few false alarms. "The false alarms ruin the good ones," he said.
Students can be documented for campus policy violations during a fire drill as well. "If there's a violation on college property, we document it," Akers said.
Alcohol or illegal substances have been found in the rooms during fire drill room checks, and students have been caught breaking visitation curfews.
"You see a male student walk out of a female dorm, (and) you can pretty much make the assumption they were violating campus policy," Akers said.
Otterbein measures up well in fire safety, both in safety equipment and precautions. New sprinkler systems and smoke detectors have been installed during the construction and renovation of campus buildings and Otterbein has conducted fire drills even though the drills weren't mandatory. t&c;
