When arriving on campus, you might have been handed an extensive list of items that are prohibited in the residence halls. Perhaps you found yourself confused about what the harm of such items could be. What could be the problem with a tapestry, an air fryer or covering more than 10% of your walls?

SUNY Oswego provided the answer to this question with their first Fire Safety Day. The main attraction of the event was the lighting of a fake dorm room, filled with furniture and items that might be found in the average student room.

In order to demonstrate why covering smoke alarms is dangerous, a plastic bag was placed over the smoke detector in the burn pod. It took several minutes for the alarm to go off, even as the fire began to flare.

The tapestry was the first thing to go up in flames, spreading the fire to other areas of the room.

“I think I’m going to go straight back and keep an eye on some of the things I have [in my room],” student Nijel Dubisson said after watching the burn.

Due to how fast ignition may occur, the official SUNY Oswego Student Handbook states, “Furniture, decorations, and other items which increase the flammability of residents’ rooms or public areas may be prohibited… Excessive amounts of combustible decorations are particularly dangerous because they can promote rapid spread of flames in the event of the fire.”

“When [the fire alarm] goes off, it could be an emergency and they only have about three to four minutes to get into a protected stairway or to get out of that building,” said Ken Ayhens, the interim director for environmental health and safety (EHS) and campus fire marshall.

Ayhens was the primary organizer of the event. The Oswego Town Fire Department, SAVAC and the Office of Fire Prevention and Control (OFPC) also participated in the event. University Police visited as well. 

“I’ve been asking the administration if we could do this for some time. I got their blessing, got some funding, because everything takes money these days,” Ayhens said.

Students were also invited to learn to use a fire extinguisher. A propane tank was used to safely fuel a fire that students were invited to put out themselves.

The Oswego Town Fire Department, who responds to most of the calls on SUNY Oswego’s campus, brought several trucks to the event.

Ice cream was also provided by Skippy’s in order to incentivize students to come and learn to be safe around fire.

“Fire wants to do one thing, and that is to grow larger and to destroy things. So, we cannot keep everybody safe from that they have to have their responsibility,” Ayhens said.

Visit https://www.oswego.edu/facilities-services/environmental-health-and-safety in order to learn more about Ayhens’ office and to learn how to be fire safe in your own living situation.

Students are also encouraged to read the 2022-23 Student Handbook, which outlines the proper procedures to follow and information to know in the case of a fire emergency. 

Photo by Mackenzie Shields