Off Campus Fires

Each year, the bulk of college student fire deaths occur in off-campus housing. Most college towns do not require fire suppressing sprinklers in older buildings converted to student rentals.

Million Dollar Grant Awarded to the People's Burn Foundation
Funding to continue live-saving firefighter training programs nationwide and development of college campus safety initiatives
PRNewswire - 15 Aug 2006
... USA - The People's Burn Foundation is pleased to announce they are the recipient of a one-million dollar "Assistance to Firefighters - Fire Prevention and Safety Program" grant from the Department of Homeland Security. Funding from the grant will be used to establish campus fire safety programs nationwide and continue their efforts in firefighter safety and training programs. A team of firefighters from across the country as well as the Massachusetts-based publication "Campus Firewatch" will work with the foundation in coordinating the development of the campus fire safety component and third installment of the firefighter training program To Hell and Back ...

Since January 2000, there have been 114 campus-related fire deaths across the country with over 80-percent of them occurring in off- campus student housing. The reason is clear as noted by Ed Comeau, publisher of Campus Firewatch.

"The bottom line is that an entire generation lacks basic fire prevention knowledge and with diminished access to that generation, how will we ever decrease fire-related deaths? With a new approach," said Comeau. With this grant, the goal is to reach the nearly 17 million students currently enrolled on our nation's campuses by making the fire and burn safety awareness program To Hell and Back III mandatory at freshman orientation ...

Blaze scorches sorority house
No one was injured, but 45 women have been displaced a week before classes are to begin at Iowa State.
Register - 14 Aug 2007
... AMES, IA - An Iowa State University sorority was preparing to install a sprinkler system in its house to comply with a new city ordinance when a fire broke out.

The fire at Alpha Chi Omega, 301 Lynn Ave., started about 7 p.m. Sunday on the third floor, possibly in a sleeping room, according to the Ames Fire Department, which is investigating the cause of the blaze. The fire caused an estimated $170,000 worth of structural and personal property damage and temporarily displaced the students one week before the start of classes ...

Safety programs aim to avoid fatal fires at ISU, IWU
Pantagraph - 14 Aug 2007
... NORMAL, IL — Not all college students are receptive to fire safety presentations, but planning and a few precautions can save their lives, a fire department spokesman said.

“Really, 2 o’clock in the morning, when a smoke detector is going off, is not the time to be taking the shrink-wrap off of your escape ladder,” said Craig Fata of the Normal Fire Department in the wake of a Bradley University student’s death in a fire Sunday ...

Bradley University sophomore dies in off-campus house fire
First fire fatality of the 2007-2008 academic year
Campus Fire Watch - 13 Aug 2007
... PEORIA, IL — A student from Bradley University was killed in an off-campus house fire yesterday. The fire was called in by cell phone at 4:34 a.m., according to West Peoria Fire Protection District Fire Chief Robert Stecher. When the fire department arrived on the scene of the two-story, wood-frame house there was smoke coming from a second floor bedroom located in the front of the building. Police officers had tried to make entry into the bedroom but were forced back by the heat and smoke. There were a total of five occupants in the building ...

Stricter fire codes urged
Some college towns require sprinklers and alarms in off-campus housing, others do not.
Star - 2 Jan 2007
...COLUMBIA, MO - Donna Passantino Henson will always remember Mother’s Day weekend of 1999.

Her son, Dominic Passantino, was a 19-year-old freshman at the University of Missouri-Columbia when he died May 8, 1999, the day before Mother’s Day, in a fire at the Sigma Chi fraternity ...

A process that began for Columbia seven years ago could come to fruition this month.

Lawmakers will review city fire codes and decide whether sprinklers should be required in all Greek houses within five years. As in most cities, Columbia currently requires new multifamily structures to be built with sprinklers ...

Deadly college fires: What should be done?
UDA Today - 30 Aug 2006
...USA - A USA TODAY team takes a long, hard look today at college fires -- the 43 fires that killed 62 college students between 2000 and 2006. There's tales from the fires, data on all of them, accounts of preventative measures, and much more. Here's some of the findings:

• "Thirty-nine of 43 fires since 2000 that killed college students erupted in off-campus housing, USA TODAY's study shows."

• "The most common element in fatal off-campus fires is alcohol. One-quarter of these fires followed a party, and in 59% of them, at least one of the dead students had been drinking, the USA TODAY analysis found."

• "Deliberately set fires were a common thread in the incidents studied by USA TODAY. They played a role in one-fifth of all fires studied and one-fourth of the 54 off-campus deaths."

• "In at least 28% of the fatal fires USA TODAY studied, smoke detectors were either missing or disconnected. Investigators suspect that number is higher, but because infernos destroy the devices, whether the smoke detector sounded could not be determined in more than half of the fires that killed college students." ...