Playing with fire

By Erin Ryan

This is not a drill - but it's not a real fire either.

By the second week of school, there have been four false fire alarms pulled in residence halls. The fire alarms provoke a response from the fire department, students, administration and community. Some are annoyed; others are concerned and even worried.

Residents of Swig and Dunne have been the only evacuees so far this year, and while they assume the prankster thinks setting the alarm off is funny, they are not laughing. Sean Powell is a freshman who lives on the 11th floor of Swig and has endured two long walks down the stairs in the middle of the night.

"It's really annoying and the second night it happened, I checked outside to see if it looked really bad," he said. "It didn't, so I didn't make it a priority to rush down."

Powell's reaction to the continuous false alarms is exactly what many fear. They are concerned that residents will become desensitized to the constant fire alarms and chose to ignore them.

"They're more than annoying; they're dangerous," said Phil Beltran, assistant director of Campus Safety. "Ignoring the alarm can prove to be deadly."

This lesson was learned the hard way at Seton Hall a few years ago when three students were killed and many more injured in a hall fire when they didn't react quickly enough to the alarm.

"Residence hall fires are a reality. They have happened here at Santa Clara - all minor so far - and they happen at other universities with tragic endings," said Cathy Justl, resident director of Dunne.

Whether the alarm is pulled accidentally, in jest or legitimately, the Santa Clara Fire Department is called to respond. In addition to the fear that students will not pay attention to future alarms, firefighter Jeremy Ray, of Station One on the corner of Alviso and Benton, pointed out other dangers.

"Whenever a fire engine responds to a call they are traveling 'Code 3' - lights and sirens. This poses a danger to firefighters and to the general public when we're speeding through traffic."

These types of accidents are actually the leading cause of death and injury to firefighters.

Another concern for the firefighters is that these false alarms take them away from other calls.

"We will already be committed to going to the university, so then another station that is farther away has to respond to a call that would have been closer for us. Seconds count, and that distance makes a difference," said Ray. With these dangers in mind, false alarms do not seem very funny.

In fact, pulling the fire alarm is a crime. Of the four false alarms this year, one was set off accidentally from dust blowing into Dunne, and the other three were deliberately pulled.

Matthew Duncan, assistant dean of Student Life said, "This carries serious criminal and judicial consequences." Duncan echoed the concerns for the students' safety and said that, unfortunately, no one has been held accountable yet for this year's false alarms.

Simply setting off a fire alarm in the absence of an emergency is a misdemeanor. But if injury were to occur, to a firefighter responding or to any residents, the crime would become a felony.

The number of false fire alarms on campus is going down from previous years. Jeremy Ray said security for the university has improved and students are doing more self-policing. "They don't want others to think it is funny when they get woken up, which has happened up to three times in one night in the past."

Valerie Sarma, resident director of Swig said, "Students are actively preventing more alarms from being aware of who is present on their floors, keeping their doors open, and not allowing people to enter Swig if they do not live in the community."

Ray also said the false alarms are more numerous in the beginning and end of the school year. Four times in these first two weeks seem to support that. The two false alarms in Swig were pulled on back-to-back nights, Sunday and Monday of the first week of school - the first school nights. Still, Jenna Doot, assistant resident director of Swig said, "Two at the beginning of the year wasn't that bad, and people have been pretty respectful since then."

Pulling the fire alarm is not a new form of entertainment, nor is it unique to Santa Clara. Firefighter Jeremy Ray said that he understands it's going to happen, having experienced the aggravation of pranks when he lived in dorms at UC-Los Angeles.

When the fire alarm is pulled, past years and this year has shown that it is typically a weeknight - when everyone is around. Friday night alarms are also quite common, and basically any party night, but not very often on Saturday nights. But more people are asleep than are partying when the alarm starts blaring.

While Justl is concerned, she also shares the feelings of the students. "It really is quite annoying when [the alarm] is pulled since it is usually some odd hour of the morning, which means everyone has to leave in their pajamas, half asleep."