This semester, those living in Ohio University residence halls have experienced an influx of “false” fire alarms, which occur when smoke from something other than a real fire is detected by the smoke detectors, and the residents are alerted and told they need to evacuate.
Robert Rymer, chief of the Athens Fire Department, said that as of Oct.27, 98 of the department’s 303 runs since Aug. 1 have been to OU buildings and residence halls. Rymer said there have not been any live fires in any of the buildings since Aug. 1 and stressed the alarms are not “false” in the sense that they malfunctioned but, rather, they were tripped by a non-fire source.
Rymer said the residence halls with the most alarms have been Bromley Hall with eight and Brown, Pickering, Gamertsfelder and Mackinnon halls with six each.
Upon one of those alarms going off, he said, residents will be alerted to leave the building, and a squad will respond and determine what the cause of the alarm was. He said the alarms are most often triggered by smaller causes, like vaping products, marijuana or cooking in the microwave.
“One of the things that I think would help out is us educating students,” Rymer said. “You’re not going to get in trouble if you accidentally burned food or it’s hairspray or something: just let us know what it is, and that will be easier to put on the report.”
Spencer Browning, a sophomore studying political science, is a resident of Bromley Hall and said the dorm has not experienced any alarms in the past weeks. However, he said they would go off once or twice a week in the first half of the semester.
He said the frequency of the alarms in Bromley could be due to the fact that it is a bigger building, so there are more residents to cause the alarms to go off.
Browning lives on the ninth floor of Bromley so, each time the alarms go off, he must descend the nine flights of stairs along with the rest of the residents. He said the protocol taken with alarms usually lasts about 20 minutes in total.
Although the alarms can be irritating, Browning thinks they are necessary for the safety of students. Despite that, he said the frequency of the alarms can be disruptive, especially when he is in an online class or other inconvenient times. Browning said the alarms have typically occurred during the day, but that has not always been the case.
“One went off at like 3 a.m. on a Tuesday,” Browning said. “That was less than ideal.”
In Browning’s experience, those alarms do not cause too much panic in his dorm. In fact, many people have started to tune them out because of their recurrence. He said he has heard of people not leaving the building anymore when the alarms sound.
“They just go and hide in their bathrooms, which I think is absolutely a problem, especially if there is actually a fire,” Browning said.
Rymer said he has also found people to be numb to the sound of the fire alarms, and his teams often find people still in their rooms when they enter the building to investigate the status of the potential fire.
Another issue with the alarms is the fire department is understaffed, Rymer said. He said sometimes when two calls overlap and when they are short-staffed, firefighters have to divide into smaller groups to determine whether each fire is a threat or not. That can be challenging, he said, especially with so many false alarms over the past few months.
Rymer said “false” fire alarm runs to residence halls, along with all other runs completed by the fire department, are paid for through the Athens general fund, which is primarily supplied by the Athens income tax. However, OU is the largest employer in the area so, indirectly, the university does contribute to the fund, he added.
OU also has allocated $50,000 per year since 2012 toward the purchase of fire trucks for the department, Rymer said.
Jim Sabin, university spokesperson, confirmed those numbers and emphasized the university's appreciation for the fire department and the frequent trips it makes to campus to ensure the well-being of its residents.
“The Athens Fire Department plays a key role in the safety of Ohio University's students, faculty and staff on campus and in the community, and we are proud to be able to support the department by contributing to the equipment it needs to perform its mission well,” Sabin said in an email.
