Caskey, Damon V.
Kolf, Emily
2015-03-08

Scene Depiction

The cool morning air and dewy grass lends its refreshing aroma to a bucolic scene of rolling hills and nearby buildings of classical architecture even as traffic from one of Lexington’s most busy asphalt arteries rages only yards away. Sidewalks give a welcome reprieve from wet shoes and occasional mud holes.

Amidst all of this peace, comes a piercing cry… “Free Tee-shirts!” It’s then wandering eyes are drawn to the booth indeed piled high with shirts and other sundries. But of greater curiosity would be the ribbed steel trailer, and containing within some even stranger contents. A couch, computer, posters, pizza, laundry – and not exactly in the cleanest of sorts. In other words, all the trappings of a typical college dorm room.

Why is this oddity sitting on a campus lawn, and what’s with the shirts? Closer inspection (and by that I mean reading the signs) reveals it all. It is September, which just happens to be Campus Fire Safety Month – declared state wide by the Commonwealth of Kentucky governor’s office (Beshear, Steven L.) (1). Naturally if you are a student this is likely something you didn’t know and probably couldn’t care less about if you did. And it is that very sort of apathy the already growing contingent around this trailer hopes to change. Fire trucks roll in, cameras are set, and a podium is assembled while yet again… “FREE TEE-SHIRTS!”

Of course no matter how loud the call, students are used to tee-shirts, and no amount of crafty slogans or declarations are going to pierce the fog of youthful apathy. That’s where the dorm room on wheels come in. Rather than merely explaining fire safety to students, or even showing videos, giving shirts and other some such, the UK Safety Community (EHS) has come up with a far more visceral method: Burning stuff! Nothing draws a crowd like burning things, except perhaps the anticipation of burning things. All you have to do is stick around for a bit and enjoy the show as the dorm room in a box meets its pyro-riffic end.

So what is it then we are going to analyze? Burning a bit of furniture is pretty obtuse. After all a couch is either ash or it isn’t – not a whole great bit of discussion to be had there. But what about the psychological effect? Does it really make any difference on the busy and sometimes hedonistic twenty something mind to see a mock of their domicile reduced to so much carbon slag? Will learning about the concept of flashover and convective heat really convince a tired and beleaguered co-ed in pajamas or less to jump at the sound of a fire alarm so they can stand about in cold night air at three in the morning? During finals week?

The UK Fire Marshall’s office sure hopes so. According to the 2014 Commonwealth of Kentucky Governor’s Fire Safety Month Proclamation (Beshear, Steven L.)(1), one hundred sixty six individuals have been killed in campus fire related incidents nationwide since January of 2000. The proclamation furthermore states “It is vital to educate the future generation of our nation about the importance of fire safety behavior in order to reduce the occurrence of fires and the resulting loss of life…” (Beshear, Steven L.)(1)

The only real question is how to go about said education. The University of Kentucky is by no means without fire safety – one only needs a cursory glance at the online Fire Policy List to see procedures have been outlined for ADA, evacuation, electrical wiring, floats, open fire camping, office heaters, stoves, microwaves, vending machines and more.

Even something as simple as a fire extinguisher is given special attention. The University employs an extinguisher specialist whose primary concern is ensuring not only that every location on campus has a sufficient number of extinguishers, but that those extinguishers are up to date and always ready in a moment’s notice. According to the University’s Extinguisher Inspection Manifest, over twenty six hundred extinguisher inspections have been conducted since June 2014 (Caskey, Damon V.) (2).

Again though, do these things really affect fire safety? To find out, let us examine some quantitate data. In September 2010, The UK Fire Marshal’s office instituted the Don’t Be an Ash program and began example dorm burnings in public venues in order to help spread awareness to students and staff. According to the UK Campus Fire Log (Caskey, Damon V.) (3), from 2010-01-01 to 2014-12-31, nineteen hundred thirteen fire incidents on campus occurred. Of these, four incidents resulted in injuries. By comparison, from 2005-01-01 to 2009-12-31, two thousand one hundred sixteen incidents occurred, with five of these resulting in injury.

It would seem that statistically, fewer incidents are occurring, which naturally leads to fewer injuries, despite slightly higher enrollments (Blackburn, Linda) (4). An argument could be made the difference is quite small, but one could then counter again that even maintaining a status quo in the face of increased activity is a success in itself. Moreover, if even one person is prevented from potential injury or death, is the price of effort not worth paying?

Back to our crisp fall morning, where the murmurs of curious onlookers has now threatened to drown out the educational monotones from our podium and cries of shirt giving. Most everyone has figured out what is about to transpire, but the how eludes them. This nebulous “how” is what all those having worked so hard to set the scene are counting on: A deadly phenomenon known as “flashover”. Defined by Merriam-Webster as “the sudden spread of flame over an area when it becomes heated to the flash point” (Merriam-Webster) (5) and further confirmed by Greg Williamson in a recorded dorm room burn demonstration (Williamson, Greg) (6), it is an amazing but lethal condition that literally ignites the air and everything in it once a given temperature threshold has been reached. In these conditions, even a fully equipped fire fighter has little chance of survival.

But this hellish display of natural pyrotechnics does have one upside. It’s an attention grabber. Seeing is believing after all. Most expect to see a big fire build up and the room to burn down. Few are prepared for the reality. Room fires don’t gradually build up like logs at your favorite campsite. They start small, reach a threshold, and then simply erupt into a total-consuming conflagration. All in less time than most commercial breaks.

Up until now I’ve spoke of the dorm burn, but in truth it is a different scene that we would like to paint for you: A smoke alarm blares. It’s three in the morning. You’re tired. Tomorrow is a big day. It’s cold outside and probably wet. Your professor couldn’t care less if you had to get up, and the last three events were all false alarms. Odds are this one is too. Or there could be a tiny trash can fire next door, harmless now but in less than two minutes utterly impassible. Do you chance it and take your time gathering up comfortable clothing, phones and such before muddling downstairs? Do you not even bother and just go back to bed? Or do you recall the sudden flashover in the trailer, decide the risk isn’t worth it and get yourself out? Statistically and thankfully our numbers say the later, but in the end only you can make that decision. If that is the case, then the job has been done. If even one life is saved, it was all worth it.

1. Beshear, Steven L. “Governor’s Proclamation.” (2014): 2014-08-19. Web. 2015-03-08.
2. Caskey, Damon V. “Table: dbo.tbl_extinguisher_inspection.” UK EHS Extinguisher Inspection Manifest. Ed. Jason Ellis, Brandon Ernest and Robert Harrison. Lexington KY: University of Kentucky, 2014. Web. 2015-03-09.
3. Caskey, Damon V. “University of Kentucky Campus Fire Log.” Ed. UK Public Safety Dispatch. Campus Fire Log. University of Kentucky, Jan. 2006. Web. 08 Mar. 2015.
4. Blackford, Linda. “University of Kentucky Enrollment Tops 29,000 for First Time.” Kentucky.com. Knight Ridder, 2013-09-10. Web. 2015-03-08.
5. Merriam-Webster. “Flashover – Definition.” Merriam-Webster. Merriam-Webster, 2015. Web. 2015-03-08.

Williamson, Greg. “Dorm Room Burn.” YouTube. Ed. Damon V. Caskey. University of Kentucky EHS, 2012-09-19. Web. 2015-03-08.