The month of September is Campus Fire Safety Month, and universities and schools across the nation are taking measures to insure the safety of students, staff and faculty against fires.

In support of this nationwide effort, the University and the cities of Champaign and Urbana will sponsor Fire Safety Week for the Champaign-Urbana community that began Monday and will continue through until Friday. Education, training and public education activities during Fire Safety Week are designed to convey important campus fire safety messages.

Throughout the week, there are many activities planned to allow people to take an active part in fire safety prevention at housing locations across campus as well as at the University Fire Station.

Schools across the nation are working to prevent future disasters in Residence Halls and other small residences. According to the University facilities and services Web site, since January, 2000, at least 75 students nationwide have died in fires occurring in student housing. Over three-fourths of these deaths have occurred in off-campus housing.

Alan Otto, coordinator for the University Special Programs department, helped develop the fall Campus Fire Safety Week programs. He said there are several actions being taken to improve fire safety in University facilities, especially dormitories.

“The dorms are inspected annually by representatives from the Champaign and Urbana Fire Departments,” Otto said. “Facilities and Services has the responsibility of following up with Housing Facilities to assure that, as much as is possible, fire safety concerns noted during the inspection are resolved.”

Otto said that University Housing also has begun a system-wide program of fire safety improvements to the dorms.

“These improvements include the scheduled installation of automatic sprinkler systems in all dormitories (some dorms, for instance Sherman and FAR, have already had the sprinklers installed) and improvements in the fire alarm systems,” Otto said.

He said the University also implemented a program of periodic inspection and testing of installed fire protection systems.

“Finally, when new buildings are constructed or existing buildings are refurbished, Facilities and Services is involved in the construction process to ensure that the stipulations of the University’s building standards, building code and fire safety code are observed,” Otto said.

Resident advisers at the Residence Halls also are taking an active part in helping with the effort. Treva Ellison, junior in Engineering and resident adviser at Oglesby Hall in FAR, said she was aware of many programs aimed at making students more aware of the fire safety prevention. All resident advisers have to make mandatory room checks to see if any dangerous objects are present, she said.

“I have to go to each room on my floor and see if there are any restricted items,” Ellison said. “This weekend, there is a program called Fire Factor that we can go to. It is a training program that allows residential staff to get hands-on experience with working with and preventing fires.”

Allison Adams, sophomore in LAS, lives in the six-pack, and agrees that extra precautions are needed while living in the Residence Halls.

“With so many people living in such a small space it’s important to prevent something from happening, and for everyone to know what to do if something did happen,” Adams said. “I think that is something that can easily be avoided without much of a hassle, so it really should not be that hard for students to comply with fire safety codes in the dorms.”