Students living on Ohio University’s campus sometimes feel like they are woken every week to the head-shaking sounds of the fire alarms in the dorm, prompting many responses from the Athens Fire Department, or AFD.
According to data provided in the AFD’s 2021 annual report, fire runs – meaning all calls or requests made for fire services to assist in an emergency – have steadily increased each year since 1996.
Robert Rymer, AFD chief, said the rise in yearly runs is due to the increasing number of students and citizens living in Athens. Rymer said the lower number of runs in the years 2020 and 2021 is due to the COVID-19 pandemic taking students away from campus, but in 2023, it looks like AFD is on track to make 1,200 runs.
The increase in runs has not caused an increase in staffing. In fact, Rymer said, their current staffing is the same as it has been since the 1970s. Although there has been an increase in Athens residents and OU students, tax cuts and prohibitive laws make it difficult for the fire department to keep its staffing levels stagnant.
Rymer said the AFD – at full strength – has six firefighters on duty; however, this is not enough staff to handle a large fire.
“They recommend 10 to 12 firefighters for a small house fire, and we’re showing up with four, and when we get enough people to come in off duty to respond from home to help out before it gets out of control,” Rymer said.
On April 26, OU Student Senate passed a bill that recommends a $50 opt-out fee to assist with the understaffing issues at AFD, according to a previous Post report. The project was headed by Dan Gordillo, governmental affairs commissioner for OU’s Student Senate, who has worked with Rymer to gain extra funding.
Rymer said he is concerned the fee money may be unpredictable since students can opt out of it; it can be difficult to know how many firefighters to hire or lay off if enough students opt out of the fee.
Senate passed the fire fee, but now it needs to be reviewed and approved by OU’s Board of Trustees. Gordillo said it will ideally be in place for Fall Semester 2024.
Senate surveyed student emails about the fire fee; there were 707 responses, and about 75% said they supported the fee, and 50% said they had no fire education before they came to the university, Rymer said.
“Hopefully we are able to get (fire) education out. I think we’re in a good position to … provide this education to the student population that is here,” Rymer said. “Think of all the students that are going to go back to their communities, or somewhere else in the world, with this information.”
Implementing fire education would help reduce the number of fire alarms set off in university dormitories. According to weekly fire run logs sent to The Post, between Aug. 27 to Sept. 9, there were 79 fire runs made by AFD. Of those, 43 were to OU buildings and 38 of those calls were to dormitories.
OU guides its students to follow fire safety through its student housing handbook. It includes ways students can avoid triggering fire alarms, like not vaping or smoking, and has a list of prohibited items, which include candles and other flammable items.
Rymer also said the fire department is working with OU to create fire safety videos.
“Ohio University is committed to continuing to work closely with leadership in the City of Athens to support health and safety on our Athens campus and within the broader community,” Robin Oliver, vice president for university communications and marketing, wrote in an email.
