NFPA Journal - September/October 2016 - 20

» OUTREACH ADVOCACY, LEGISLATION, AND PUBLIC EDUCATION LORRAINE CARLI Off-Campus Conundrum I n July, a group of fire officials from across Massachusetts that have colleges in their communities met at NFPA to discuss the upcoming school year and a perennial challenge: how to start and end the college year without a significant fire tragedy on or around their campuses. The fears of local fire officials are not without merit. According to "Campus Fire Fatalities in Residential Buildings (2000-2015)," a recent report published by the United States Fire Administration (USFA), there were 85 fatal fires with 118 fatalities in dorms, frats, sororities, and offcampus housing during the 16 academic years examined in the study (available online at usfa.fema.gov). Additional facts supported their con- The thought of a late-night fire ripping through an overcrowded off-campus house jammed with partying freshmen is never far from firefighters' minds. cerns: nearly all (94 percent) of those fires occurred in off-campus housing; alcohol was a factor in 76 percent of the fires; most fires occurred on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday; and nearly 60 percent of the fires occurred in homes where smoke alarms were either missing or had been tampered with. These statistics provide important data to inform campaigns aimed at reducing these fires and keeping college kids safe. They lead fire and safety officials to focus on off-campus housing and the lifesaving benefits of smoke alarms and escape planning. 20 NFPA NFPAJOURNAL JOURNAL JULY/AUGUST SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2016 2016 This may sound simple, but it can be complicated by the somewhat unique characteristics of those impacted. The target audiences are college-age kids, their parents, and the landlords who rent properties to college students. Most college kids are on their own for the first One college student died and 15 people were injured, including time, and smoke six firefighters, in a fire at this rental property in Boston in 2013. alarms aren't usually among their top-of-mind concerns. The group came up with a range Parents want to balance letting their of strategies for addressing these children go with telling them what concerns, from highlighting model to do, and landlords aren't always landlords who take fire safety seriable to keep up with what happens ously to some old favorites such as in the house after they hand over the including a pizza with every fire keys to college-age renters. service outreach effort-it's hard The group of firefighters that met to go wrong with pizza as an inat NFPA this summer was up to the centive for anything involving colchallenge. The discussion began lege students. Participants noted with an acknowledgment that, dethat great resources exist from spite the ongoing challenges, the groups like NFPA, USFA, the Cencampus fire problem is better than it ter for Campus Fire Safety (camused to be. The number of collegepusfiresafety.org), Campus Firerelated fires, like fires in general, has watch (campus-firewatch.org), The declined over the last few decades. Michael H. Minger Foundation More and more college dorms are (mingerfoundation.org), and othsprinklered, codes are enforced, and ers. They also came away with a fire safety is presented to students on plan to spearhead a Massachusettsa regular basis. Nevertheless, the prespecific campaign centered around dominance of fire in off-campus smoke alarms and escape plans, housing and the safety problems and I'm sure they won't mind if those occupancies can present are others borrow it. Check out the enough to fuel concern among plan at BestRoommatesEvah.org many firefighters. The thought of an and make this school year a fireafter-midnight fire ripping through safe one. an overcrowded off-campus house jammed with partying freshmen is LORRAINE CARLI is vice president of never far from their minds. outreach and advocacy for NFPA. Photograph: Photo by Dina Rudick/The Boston Globe via Getty Images Addressing the persistent problem of off-campus fire safety http://usfa.fema.gov http://www.campusfiresafety.org http://www.campusfiresafety.org http://www.campus-firewatch.com http://www.mingerfoundation.org http://www.BestRoommatesEvah.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - September/October 2016