NDFD emphasizes fire prevention on both campuses
By TIM LOGAN
News Editor
Notre Dame and Saint Mary's combine education, preparation and fire safety devices to try to prevent incidents like the blaze that killed three students Wednesday at Seton Hall University.
All of the dorms on the two campuses have alarms and at least some form of automatic sprinkler system and a series of regulations banning certain high-risk objects from student rooms.
Full sprinkler systems — with heads in each room — exist in all Saint Mary's residence halls, according to Dana North, assistant director for Residence Life at the College.
Those systems are in place in approximately half of the dorms at Notre Dame, said University fire chief John Antonucci. Fifteen Notre Dame residences have "partial" sprinkler systems that protect high-risk areas such as boiler rooms and laundries, Antonucci said. The rest have full systems with a sprinkler in every room. These, and an extensive network of extinguishers and alarms, help the department combat blazes.
But the fire department — located on campus next to Haggar Hall — focuses on prevention first. The on-campus fire department gives officials the jurisdiction to enforce fire code regulations more easily and check sprinklers, alarms and extinguishers frequently, Antonucci said.
"What an on-campus fire department does for us is [put] us in a very proactive position," Antonucci said. "We're able to initiate preventions."
The Notre Dame Fire Department also covers the Saint Mary's campus, and residence halls at both schools run fire drills regularly and train resident assistants to assist in fire protection.
But prevention is the key to fire safety, Antonucci said.
"What people don't seem to realize is that fire suppression is a totally reactive activity," he said. "Once a fire has moved from its initial state to a free-burning state, it's very difficult to mount enough manpower and enough equipment to bring that incident to a successful close without injury or fatality. That's what happened at Seton Hall."
As a result, regulations are in place banning a number of items, including candles, microwaves and toaster ovens, from dorm rooms.
At Notre Dame, smoking is banned in all residence halls. Students are allowed to smoke in their rooms at Saint Mary's, but there are non-smoking floors in some of the College's four dorms. The key to prevention, fire officials say, is residents obeying these regulations.
"We have the policies in place and we ask the students to follow them," North said.
Antonucci said he meets with residence halls on occasion to discuss fire safety and impress upon them the importance of remaining smart about flames.
"They are the ones that can prevent the incidents from happening," he said. "They can abide by the rules we have to stop them."
Rectors, who often serve on the front lines of fire protection, said they think the fire department's prevention and protection efforts are good.
"I'm personally feeling quite protected," said Pasquerilla East rector Mary Ann Mueninghoff. "I have found them quite timely whenever there has been any kind of emergency."
The fire department has two pumping trucks and four firefighters on duty at all times, according to Antonucci. They are currently in the process of retrofitting the 15 dorms that have partial sprinkler systems with full ones.
The last time a residence hall caught on fire at Notre Dame was when St. Edward's Hall's roof burned in June 1980, Antonucci said. A couch caught on fire in Saint Mary's south lounge of Regina Hall last May.
All News Stories for Thursday, January 20, 2000
