<p>Obviously dorms are required to be fire-safe, not have candles, have regular drills, etc. I've often heard of small microwave fires.. but has anyone experienced truly awful fires where a student's possessions were completely burned? I don't want to be a downer and of course I hope there aren't many stories, but I'm curious about how they start, how often they are, and how bad the damage would be.</p>
<p>It just happened at Penn.............in the Quad and sprinklers saved lives. All possessions were lost.<a href="http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/12/13/439e54f9a177a%5B/url%5D">http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/12/13/439e54f9a177a</a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.nj.com/news/setonhallfire/%5B/url%5D">http://www.nj.com/news/setonhallfire/</a></p>
<p>Dorms are only required to do what local regulations require........some issues are grandfathered and thus the local regs don't apply.</p>
<p>what are the dorm fire drills like? do they pull the alarm at 1 in the morning or something?</p>
<p>only on the really cold, snowy or sub freezing nites. I mean pouring down rain isn't fun either. People always think it is a prank....that is what they are like.</p>
<p>Our fire drills (which I think may happen tongiht) come once a quarter sometime between 8-10. Generally it sounds at the single worst time possible.</p>
<p>How cold can it be in California or is that Californication that the drill is interrupting?</p>
<p>at barnard it's usually in the afternoon or early evening, it's never been at a ridiculous time although sometimes people are in the shower. i mean, people are always showering in college.</p>
<p>It gets down into the low 50's here at night, and sometimes even the high 40's.</p>
<p>Last quarter the drill sounded during the 9th inning of game one of the the ALCS.</p>
<p>I haven't had any experience with dorm fires, but when I was at Pitt there was an incident with the sprinkler system firing off accidently, soaking through a couple of floors ruining all of their possessions. It's incidents like these that make it essential to make sure you have insurance on your belongings (most is covered under your parent's homeowner policies while in dorms...but make sure they double-check!).</p>
<p>and nobody ran for the stairs I'll bet............</p>
<p>fire at W&M, Spring '05 semester, during the first week of exams, around 1pm. Fire started in the attic.</p>
<p>IMPRESSIVE pictures, fire in action: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cookiejak/sets/297615/%5B/url%5D">http://www.flickr.com/photos/cookiejak/sets/297615/</a>
more pictures: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/gurami/sets/370173/%5B/url%5D">http://www.flickr.com/photos/gurami/sets/370173/</a></p>
<p>articles:
<a href="http://www.wm.edu/news/?id=4480%5B/url%5D">http://www.wm.edu/news/?id=4480</a>
<a href="http://www.wm.edu/news/?id=4566%5B/url%5D">http://www.wm.edu/news/?id=4566</a></p>
<p>Dorm was fixed quickly, and students moved back in during the middle of October, Fall 05.</p>
<p>hazmat everyone knows you aren't supposed to run during a fire drill =P</p>
<p>... the important question is, do you bring your laptop outside with you incase it's a real fire? ponder on =P</p>
<p>silly me on the running........I run with scissors so I always forget about safety and running........stop drop and roll that is my motto.</p>
<p>Andy71, our one actual drill was around 8 one night at the beginning of first semester. We've also had two incidents that caused the alarms to go off. 1:30 am the Friday morning of midterms, someone burnt popcorn, and opened the door into the hall (not supposed to do that), which set off the main fire alarm. So it was out into the 30* temps in pj's, bedhead, and flip flops, because since it was the end of midterms we were sound asleep. Last night about 8:30 someone in the rec lounge burnt cotton candy. Outside again, this time in appropriate clothes, but since it was snowing, it was still cold.
There is nothing like being blasted out of a sound sleep to have to go out into subfreezing temperatures. We got back into the building about 20 minutes after going outside, but my body shook for another 2 hours after.</p>
<p>What did you do accept some Southern kids who aren't familiar with FYAO weather?</p>
<p>We were told at the beginning of the semester that our dorm will burn down in 4 minutes flat.</p>
<p>That was without wind and lots of laundry.......clean floors and high wind you will have less time.</p>
<p>oddly enough I just came back from being outside from 12:05-12:30 due to a fire alarm... what better way to start off your friday?</p>
<p>2 Friends of my kiddo - went snowboarding on a school trip - got a call at 6am sat - their dorm room had had a fire - all lost!!! - but the good news - nobody injured. - but of course dorm was evac'd.</p>
<p>Got my goat that parents said they would pick up the kiddos and take them back to school to work things out - never showed!!! - they ended up back at the school on sunday nite - with no place to go - their room locked - burn markes around the door jam. Cause of fire was determined to be a faulty alarm clock wire.</p>
<p>Had to bunk in with friends for a few days - but did get reassigned to another room for the rest of the semester - happy ending - now off campus in apartment.</p>
<p>My kiddo hated those middle of the night fire alarm drills w/mandatory evac - but hey - ya never really know if they are real or not. Better be safe than sorry</p>