Fire Protection at University Sparks Concern. What do you think?

[GreenCap]

"Two years after Rutgers University disbanded the student volunteer fire squad that covered its two sprawling Piscataway campuses, a number of fire officials and safety experts say the Busch and Livingston campuses may be under-protected.


In most municipalities and large universities, a fire alarm brings fully equipped firefighters to the scene. At Busch and Livingston, where 6,000 students are housed in 36 residential buildings, the first responders are one or two university-employed emergency experts known as "shift commanders." The shift commanders drive police-style sedans or SUVs, wear no protective gear and carry little more than a fire extinguisher."

What do you think?

Follow link for entire story. http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index..../12832491.html

[RADFIRE]

I don't see it as sound reasoning in wake of the Seton Hall incident. Couldn't the college provide live-ins for fire protection? During classes the response would be sketchy, however a tour schedule based on availability could be managed I'm sure.
Just my 0.02.

[Captain Gonzo]

With the multi million dollar endowments that some of these large universties have, I cannot see why they could not donate funding to their local fire departments or have their own FD's on campus to handle their fire prevention inspections and emergencies, after all, most of them have their own police departments.

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Firefighters: rising under adverse conditions to accept the challenge!
Captain Gonzo

[Calvertvolunteer]

It is ridiculous that such a large university would remove its fire service. You would not consider having a town with 6,000+ and no measure of fire protection, why should a university be different.

As a student at UMD, we don't have a fire service on campus, but College Park Volunteer Fire Department is about a block away, and is staffed almost entirely by students. Furthermore, several companies are just a few minutes away (Berwyn Heights, Branchville, Adelphi, Chillum, Riverdale, Riverdale Heights and Hyattsville) and many of them draw on students in their membership

[fireman phil]

Hey GreenCap.... I can relate. Our community has a state university of around 6000 students. The campus investigate all bells and smells on there own. Which is ok until the "WORKER" occurs than we get a 10-15 minute delay on our response and useally treat a campus cop for smoke inhalation.

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Fireman Phil of the Show Me State

[Dalmatian90]

Few random thoughts...

One, the article didn't mention the degree to which the buildings are sprinklered. Behind the protection of a sprinkler system, you probably eliminate the need for a fire department on that campus.

The University says it can't afford $960,000/year for a full time FD. Let's do this math: 20 year bond, 6% interest, with annual payments of $500,000 would give you $6,000,000 today to work with. I'd hope they could install a full sprinkler system for $1,000/resident. Plus the bond payment is a set amount ending after 20 years...a full time fire department is an annual salary, etc, cost that keeps increasing indefinitely.

Meantime reestablish a fire brigade with a leased piece of apparatus. The "shift commanders" can move to mostly day coverage, the students can cover the evenings. Even after the sprinklering, they still have a need for EMS & outside fire work as well as mopping up sprinkler activations.

If you're having false alarms, there is one of three things going on:
1) Poorly designed/maintained fire alarm
causing false alarms. That can be fixed.
2) Students burning candles/food/having a really smoky bong in their dorm rooms -- hopefully your fire alarm tells you what room the alarm came in from and appropriate discipline can be taken.
3) Students pulling alarms. Time to coat the pull stations with ultraviolet dye and check everyone's hands with a blacklight! And cameras in the halls wouldn't be a bad idea either.

[RJE]

So they think they can't afford a paid dept? What's wrong with a vollie one. Then students could join (or not) and respond based on their schedules. And buy them a real truck and some turnouts.

I'd still make sure they're fully sprinklered first, though.

As far as "excessive" smells & bells, the campus should be an auto-alarm to the FD (not through the campus cops) and the first in pumper always goes in, even if cancelled by the cops. If you have students on the vollie dept, their own presence/peer pressure will correct the "false" calls.

[webteam]

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