1:55 p.m., Aug. 24, 2009----While fire safety training may not be listed as an official University of Delaware course requirement, such training sessions may be among the most important classes that some students attend during their academic careers.

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On Thursday evening, Aug. 20, about 230 Residence Life staff members learned firsthand about the importance of fire safety as they crawled their way out of a smoke filled East Campus residence hall during a training session.

Also participating in the exercise were representatives of the University Police and and UD's Office of Environmental Health and Safety, as well as volunteers from Aetna Hose, Hook & Ladder Co. in Newark. The training session also featured a video from the People's Burn Foundation presented courtesy of Ed Comeau of Campus Firewatch, an online newsletter focusing on campus fire safety.

The video, shown by Kevin McSweeney, of Environmental Health and Safety, featured a young man “speaking frankly about fire safety on and off campus,” Cathy Skelley, assistant director of Residence Life, said. “This really set a good tone for the importance of our evening's training topics.”

Besides crawling through a Russell C residence hall filled with theatrical smoke, participants received training in handling fire extinguishers and learned about safety issues, concerning H1N1 and blood borne pathogens.

“Our RAs learn best from hands-on and experiential training, so the fire extinguisher use was appreciated, as was the opportunity to crawl through a smoke-filled hallway,” Skelley said. “The simulation really provided staff with a realistic view of how to escape a smoke-filled building.”

Skelley said that trainees also appreciated hearing from area community police officers about fire alarm protocol and fire drills, and other campus safety concerns.

“The Residence Life staffers are much better prepared to respond to any fire emergency,” Skelley said. “Hearing about blood borne pathogens and the University's H1N1 plan gave them a chance to ask our speakers questions specific to the residence halls.”

Comeau noted that fire safety education and awareness is a vital part of an effective campus safety program.

“Fire safety is certainly not the first thing on the minds of students, whether they are freshmen or seniors,” Comeau said. “Making them aware of the dangers they face is the first and probably most important and difficult step.”

Projects such as the People's Burn Foundation I Got 2 Kno resource and To Hell and Back: College Fire Survival have had a dramatic increase nationally in making students aware and also encouraging them to take action, Comeau said.

The People's Burn Foundation (PBF) was established as a nonprofit organization in 1997. Della Hines, a burn survivor, founded PBF after she suffered the loss of two of her three children in a 1991 apartment fire.

“Once students are made more aware of the dangers of fire, they learn that it is really serious and has killed other students,” Comeau said. “This makes them want to know more.”

The evening's events also included a motivational presentation from the People's Burn Foundation, followed by working sessions among smaller groups of Residence Life staffers.

“The training went great,” McSweeney said. “I think the topics and the presentations really hit home and hopefully will help keep the residence halls safe.”

Article by Jerry Rhodes