The Echo

Issue date: 4/16/09 Section: News

Media Credit: Katherine Smalley Crying wolf: Erica Childress, a Jackson, Tenn., junior walks past a fire alarm pull in UTC Place Decosimo Apartments. False alarms have caused late-night evacuations for students.

Usually firefighters respond to an emergency call expecting to find a disaster, but this is rarely the case when the call comes from UTC Place.

Lisa Gladden, of safety and risk management, said during the 2008-2009 school year that firefighters have responded to evacuation fire alarms 30 times at UTC Place, mostly because of cooking incidents and shower steam.

Tiffany McKelvy, resident assistant in the Stophel apartments at UTC Place, or the 3000 building, said when a bathroom fan stops working, the shower steam easily gets outside the bathroom and sets off the smoke detector.

Cigar and marijuana smoke, curling irons, bug bombs and water heaters have also been reported to have caused smoke detectors to activate local and general alarms, Gladden said.

In addition, UTC Place has had 300 local alarms, Gladden said. A local alarm occurs when a smoke detector goes off in one apartment.

A general alarm, or evacuation alarm, occurs when a sprinkler head or pull station is activated, a smoke detector is set off in a hallway or if two local alarms are going off near each other.

The Stophel apartments are responsible for 11 of the general alarms, and McKelvy said this is because the building is larger than the other UTC Place establishments.

Gladden said students often activate the sprinklers. Residents hang décor from the sprinklers, and if the decorations are accidentally tugged on, it will knock the sprinkler head off. Also, there are sprinklers in the trash chutes that may be knocked off if hit by enough force, she said.

Firefighters, police, a resident assistant and the resident director are required to respond during a general fire alarm, while the residents must evacuate the building.

Gladden said most residents are cooperative with the frequent fire alarms.

However, some students have become lax because of their regularity. "My fear is one day it will be the real thing, and someone isn't going to get out in time," she said.

In the event of a local alarm, a resident assistant and campus police have to report to the alarm site.

"We don't want to call the firefighters out because someone doesn't know how to cook," Gladden said.

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