Pop-In Fire Checks a Stressor for Students
Benedetto Maniscalco | November 3, 2022
Warren WilsonCollege (WWC) has ramped up their attention to fire safety as of the fall 2022 semester. Public Safety, accompanied by a resident assistant (RA) on duty, checks two buildings per day every day of the week. The random checks have been a stressful and exhausting experience for both students and the RAs conducting them.
Nat Fowler, a third year art major on the Paint Crew, shared multiple complaints about the way in which these fire safety checks are being conducted. They brought up some issues that Public Safety may not be considering while doing these checks.
“(My roommate) and I, we both looked at each other afterwards and we were like, ‘I almost threw up just now,’ because both of us have PTSD and loud sounds like that don't fly,” Fowler said. “Knocking for me is a huge trigger. Which sounds really silly, because people knock on doors all the time, but if someone is banging on my door, it throws off my entire day and possibly more than a day.”
Emails were sent out at the start of the fall 2022 semester by both Public Safety and Residence Life staff regarding stricter enforcement of fire codes.
“Many of the personal appliances that you have typically brought to school and used in your rooms are no longer allowed,” was written in the email sent out by campus housing. “For example appliances like microwaves, hot pots, hot plates, rice cookers, toasters and toaster ovens are not permitted to be used and/or stored inside of your rooms.”
Fowler stated that students were instructed not to bring certain appliances until further notice.
“In the first hall meeting, they said that there would be weekly fire checks and if we were in violation of the fire code to any severe degree, the entire dorm would be shut down and they also mentioned the possibility of arrest.,” Fowler said.
Fowler expressed discomfort with the ultimatum of loss of housing, a situation that could be detrimental to students without safe homes to return to.
“So right off the bat, it definitely felt very threatening,” Fowler said. “Then (residence life staff) were talking about how it's because our fire alarms go off all the time and how it's the students’ fault for covering smoke detectors and stuff.”
The issue of smoke detectors being covered was mentioned consistently in warnings and statements sent out by the school. Fowler included an anecdote that John Davidson, the Director of Public Safety, attributed a recurring fire alarm to an empty dorm room.
“While there have been like a couple of cases of that happening, what's really happening is that the fire alarms don't work,” Fowler said. “Within the first week of school, being in Dorland, I heard the fire alarms go off in Sage three times in one day, in a room that wasn't occupied,” Fowler said.
Nijah Colston, a second year English major on the Residence Life Crew, expressed a different set of grievances from the perspective of a RA.
“They're just really annoying,” Colston said. “No one has fun doing them, okay, I'm really tired. I'd rather not be doing it.”
She explained that the RAs get very little warning before they have to conduct the checks with a public safety employee.
“We know as much as you guys know,” Colston said. “We don't get told anything before. We don't get told rooms are being checked; we don't get told who's being checked; we have no say on when or how we have no say on anything.”
Colston said that the amount of information they receive is scarce and is given to them right before checks are conducted. This is done intentionally, as students are not supposed to receive any warnings before the checks begin.
“None of us get any information other than pubsafe, which is the point, the point that none of us know anything,” Colston said.
Colston spoke on the matter of faulty fire safety equipment as well.
“The fire safety stuff has been updated; they went and kind of fixed a lot of the issues, so right now it's just kind of proving that as students we don't act like idiots,” Colston said. “In our past we've had a lot of students tamper with fire stuff and cause fires. The fire department's been called here a lot.”
Colston mentioned that as an RA, she is faced with receiving a large amount of the negativity from students regarding the fire safety checks.
“I just wish students would be a bit nicer about it because, okay, you're being rude to me and you're older than me, I don’t want to do this,” Colston said. “I think people have to understand that we try not to go super late.”
Fowler provided suggestions for those conducting safety checks.
“Knock quieter and wear masks, because not wearing a mask and knocking incredibly aggressively is threatening and disrespectful, this is where we live, we pay to live here,” Fowler said.