State pressing fire safety message on college campuses
With college fall semesters getting underway, state emergency services and fire prevention representatives will visit campuses across the state — including three in Dutchess County — in the coming weeks to conduct inspections and provide educational programs and fire safety training, the governor’s office said Friday.
Members of the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services and the Office of Fire Prevention and Control will teach students about campus fire dangers and provide special training for residence assistants (RAs) and residence life directors, according to a press release from Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office.
The state teams will be at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park on Sept. 21, Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson on Sept. 23 and Dutchess Community College in the town of Poughkeepsie on Oct. 4.
New York strengthened its campus fire inspection and education programs following a fatal fire in a freshman residence hall at Seton Hall University in New Jersey in 2000, Cuomo’s office said.
It said some states opted to retrofit college dorms with sprinklers to improve safety but New York passed legislation that instituted the most vigorous fire inspection program in the country and made the Office of Fire Prevention and Control responsible for inspecting all private and public colleges and universities in the state outside New York City.
In the last year, the Office of Fire Prevention and Control has conducted 23,689 inspections on campuses in New York, the governor’s office said.
“New York has one of the most robust campus fire inspection programs in the country and our work to educate students about fire danger has received national recognition and help[ed] prevent avoidable tragedies,” Cuomo said in a prepared statement.
The state offers the following fire safety tips for college students.
• Always know two ways out, whether in a residence hall, off-campus housing, at an event or at a party.
• If a smoke alarm or fire alarm sounds, get out of the building quickly.
• Cook only where permitted and never leave cooking unattended.
• Don’t exceed the maximum bulb wattage for lamps.
• Make sure there are smoke and carbon monoxide detectors nearby, and never remove their batteries or disable them.
• Know and obey school rules about using electrical appliances in dorm rooms.
Other colleges that will be visited by state emergency services and fire prevention representatives between now and mid-October are: Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Union College, St. Lawrence University, Siena College, Fulton–Montgomery Community College, SUNY Potsdam and SUNY Adirondack.