Campus fire safety: What you need to know

As part of its annual Life-Saving Measures event, the Division of Public Safety (DPS) hosted a live side-by-side controlled “burn” of a dorm room model on Hamilton Field to show how “Sprinklers Save Lives.”

All of Penn’s on-campus residences have sprinkler systems, and the demonstration illustrated the importance of this safety feature. In just a few minutes, the dorm room without sprinklers was destroyed.

According to the Philadelphia Fire Department, a fire can become life-threatening in as little as two minutes. In five minutes, an entire home can be up in flames. Fire produces poisonous gases that can cause confusion and sleepiness, so survival can be a matter of split-second thinking.

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Gene Janda, the chief of Fire and Emergency Services with DPS, was a 22-year veteran of the Philadelphia Fire Department before he came to Penn in 2000. He offers recommendations for residents in on- or off-campus housing:

• Get out quickly and stay out.
• Don’t become a victim by trying to fight a fire.
• If a fire occurs on campus, think of R.A.C.E.:

Rescue – Rescue anyone who may be in danger.
Alarm – Activate the nearest manual fire alarm pull station; get to a safe location and dial 215-573-3333 on a cell or 5-1-1 if on a Penn phone.
Confine – Close the doors behind you to keep the fire and smoke in the area of origin.
Evacuate – Follow the building’s evacuation plan.

• For people who reside outside of the Penn Patrol Zone between 30th and 43rd streets, and from Market Street to Baltimore Avenue, call 9-1-1.
• Always feel the door with the back of one hand before opening it.  If it’s hot or if there’s smoke under the door, find another way out.
• If a resident is unable to get out of a room stuff a towel under the door to keep out the smoke, and if possible, signal for help by waving a cloth or sheet outside of the window.
• Do not use elevators.
• Stay close to the floor, where the air is safer, when trying to get out of the building. Smoke and heat rise. The air is clearer and cooler near the floor.

Janda also offered tips on how to prepare for and prevent fire:

• Review the building’s evacuation plan, particularly if it is a high-rise, and know two ways out of every building.
• Develop and practice a home fire safety plan, escape route, and meeting point. Practice getting out of each room. Every second counts during a fire, so don’t stop to get anything.
• Never leave cooking or candles unattended.
• Use caution with temporary heating source like space heaters and keep heaters at least three feet away from anything that could catch fire, such as curtains or clothing.
• Install smoke alarms on every level of the home: outside of bedrooms, at the top of open stairways and at the bottom of any stairways that are enclosed between two walls. Try to keep A-B-C-type fire extinguishers in the house and teach everyone how to use them.
• Test smoke detectors and carbon monoxide alarms each month, and replace their batteries twice a year. The Philadelphia Fire Department suggests making it a habit when resetting the clocks for Daylight Savings Time. Replace smoke alarms once every 10 years.
• Close the bedroom door before going to sleep. It can help slow the effects of toxic smoke and heat. It also helps stop the spread of flames.

During the Life-Saving Measures event, additional activities included information tables with the Division of Public Safety’s services, such as lock-out and jump-start assistance, Automated External Defibrillator awareness training, a shelter-in-place drill, testing of the UPennAlert emergency notification system, and hands-only CPR demonstrations with the student-run Medical Emergency Response Team.