Olivia Guerro, Campus Carrier deputy news editor
Students residing in Morgan are voicing growing frustration over persistent fire alarms that are disrupting daily life. The alarms are reported to have occurred five times over the course of Sept. 2 and 3, leaving many students exhausted and increasingly skeptical about whether the system should be taken seriously. The repeated disruptions have quickly become a source of tension. Some students have raised concerns not only about the frequency of the fire alarms, but also the way they sound inside the resident halls. Sophomore Kaylin Reid has been frustrated by the fire alarms in Morgan.
“It’s not really loud inside [the dorm rooms], which first off, I think is kind of a safety hazard because why is it louder outside and not inside?” Reid said.
While the volume may be less noisy inside, the alarms are reported to often continue for such a long duration that they inevitably wake students up.
“Once it does start playing, because it plays for such a long time, it does end up waking you up,” Reid said. “And I have a hard time going back to sleep when I am woken up.”
Beyond the disruptions to sleep, some students worry the frequent alarms are creating a possibly dangerous atmosphere of distrust for the fire alarms. A few students feel that with many malfunctions, some residents are less likely to leave their rooms when the alarms sound. Ryan Albridge, a junior resident in Morgan, said that some students do not even leave the building when the alarm sounds.
Morgan-Deerfield Hall, where students are
complaining of sensitive fire alarms.
“[When the alarms sounded] some men didn’t come out at all [from their dorms],” Albridge said.
This desensitization could pose serious safety risks. With the reoccurring alarms at odd hours of the night and sometimes repeating multiple times in a short span, many students could have an instinct to stay put instead. Reid expressed a similar concern, noting that with so many disruptions in such a short span, some students now wait for additional signs of danger before reacting.
“If there was a real emergency, a lot of people probably wouldn’t get out,” Reid said. “Unless they actually smelled the smoke.”
While many assume the alarms are malfunctioning, that not always the case. Rather, the alarms are doing their job of detecting smoke. Director of Residence Life, Stephen Swieton, brings attention to the fact that smoke detectors are designed to be sensitive to possible smoke, and in dorm environments, many everyday things could set them off.
“I think there’s a perception that they’re just going off, but actually most of the time they are going off because of an actual factor,” Swieton said. “It could be cooking, it could be sometimes sprays, body sprays, things like that can trigger them. So, there’s a variety of things – there’s a lot of dust in your room, dust hitting the sensor can trigger it.”
This sensitivity, while possibly frustrating for students, is intentional.
“We have 2,000 people, roughly, who live on this campus,” said Swieton. “And so the fact that they go off, it feels like it’s a lot because we hear about all of them, because they all impact a disproportionate number of people.”
Swieton said the issue is not just frequency but conversations across Berry. Each alarm affects large numbers of residents at once, creating the perception that the problem is larger than it may be statistically. Despite the disruptions, Swieton said that students must continue to treat every alarm as if there were a fire. Each activation not only alerts the building’s residents but also triggers an automatic response system that alerts the Welcome Center. Exiting during every alarm not only ensures individual safety but also allows time for the welcome center to be alerted and dispatch an officer, a fire truck, or any other emergency vehicle that could be needed. All dispatch is managed through the city and the county, but the Welcome Center starts the response once the alarm goes off.
“And just because you don’t smell smoke or see the smoke doesn’t mean there isn’t a fire someplace, and that there’s not a risk if an alarm goes off, get out of the building,” Swieton said. “It is more important that you’re alive than that it may be inconvenient [to stay in your room when the alarm is going off].”
Swieton reminds students that no matter how many times the alarms sound, students’ response must stay consistent and they must follow proper procedures.