Fire Safety Questions to Ask Before Sending a Child to College

Credit: National Fire Sprinkler Industry, IP Promo-Gram, Winter 2004

It is important that parents arm themselves with fire safety information, said Donna Possantino Henson, who lost her son in a fraternity fire in 1999. “There are questions that I wish we had asked when Dominic went to school.” She urges parents to consider the answers to these questions carefully when choosing a school.

A list of questions includes:

• How many fires have occurred on campus in the past year, two years, five years? How many students have been injured or killed? How much dollar loss have these fires caused? (This should be all fires, not just those reported as arson.)
• Are residence halls equipped with automatic fire sprinklers? If not, why not? (Sprinklers are the vital first line of defense.)
• Does every student’s room have a smoke alarm? Does it signal campus security or the fire department?
• Does the school investigate the alarms before notifying the fire department? (This will delay its arrival, putting more people at risk.)
• Are smoking, candles and Halogen lamps prohibited?
• Must electrical appliances and power strips be certified as safe and reliable?
• How much fire prevention training does the residence hall staff receive? Who provides it?
• How often are fire drills conducted?
• What is the disciplinary policy for false alarms and failure to evacuate?
• How many false alarms have occurred in the residence halls? (False alarms cause students to stop paying attention to the alarms, which can be fatal.)
• Does the school provide fire extinguisher training for students?