Kennesaw State held its annual Campus Safety Day Thursday, March 15, on the Marietta campus, and, to celebrate, KSU put on its annual mock dorm room burn.
This year’s mock dorm fire demonstration was held on the Marietta campus green between Howell Hall and Norton Hall. The demonstration showed how quickly a fire can spread because of simple hazards like candles and kitchen appliances, especially due to all of the highly flammable items found in a dorm room.
Firefighters used candles to set fire to two mock dorm rooms, showing what happens when the flame comes in contact with combustible items such as bedspreads, curtains and books.
KSU’s fire safety manager Matthew Shannon said the demonstration lets the public see first-hand how quickly a fire can spread and the extent of the damages fire can cause. The event makes clear the importance of fire safety and prevention devices.
“We built two mock residence hall rooms, one with a fire sprinkler and one without,” Shannon said. “We set them both on fire to show the importance of fire sprinkler and smoke alarms for proper notification and control of a fire.”
The event was managed by local fire and safety experts such as Fire and Life Safety inspector Tyler Fitts, director of residence life Jeff Cooper, the KSU Police mobile command vehicle, K9 units and the Cobb County Police bomb squad.
All of these experts were at the event to make sure the demonstration was safe, to educate students and to answer any questions.
Shannon said the point of the event is to teach students “when the smoke detector sounds to evacuate quickly, do not touch or mess with fire protection equipment.” The importance of proper housekeeping was also stressed.
Shannon and other emergency officials made it clear at the event that every KSU dorm has a sprinkler, fire detector and fire extinguishers in the rooms and hallways.
This demonstration was on the Marietta campus this semester, but the university plans to hold another mock dorm room fire on the Kennesaw campus in the fall.
