• Znine
• Campus Calendar
• My Mav
• UTA Radio
• UTA Home
• Student Email
• Libraries
• Wikipedia

• Local Forecast
• Movie Listings
• Traffic Info
• TV Listings

September 13, 2006

The Great Escape

University residents learn about fire safety and how to survive a fire

Story by: Joan Khalaf

Contributor to The Shorthorn

The Shorthorn: Megumi Rooze

Theatre art junior Katrina Kirven fumbles through the smoky hallway Tuesday in Lipscomb Hall. The exercise was used to teach fire safety to residents.

Residents at Lipscomb Hall were bombarded by alarming knocks at their doors as Kristen Wessner, Lipscomb South third floor resident assistant and history and secondary education junior, reminded her floor that The Great Escape was about to take place.

The Great Escape is a program that takes place once every semester and is rotated among residence halls. It is designed to teach residents in the university’s dormitories how to survive a fire. All campus residents were welcome to attend.

“This is about fire safety?” business marketing freshman Nick Clark said. “I thought I was coming to watch a movie and get free pizza.”

The event started with a planned fire drill, then participants were invited in for free pizza and drinks. A presentation by Robert Smith, Fire and Life Safety assistant director, included a safety video and a speech on fire safety.

While students sat comfortably in the TV lounge, fog machines were being set off on the first floor of Lipscomb North to give students firsthand experience at just how little can be seen in a real fire.

“Besides actually setting the building on fire, I don’t think there’s a better way to teach fire safety,” nursing freshman Ryan Mitchell said. “It was pretty sweet. I’ve never been through a smoked hall.”

A second fire alarm was set off while students were waiting in line to enter the fog-filled hallway to enhance the experience. However, students started to exit the building as a natural reaction to the alarm.

“Fortunately, people listened to the alarm and practiced fire safety,” housing assistant director Mari Duncan said.

As small groups were released into the hall, they entered a thick, dense white world where hardly anything was visible.

“I saw it and thought if it was black like a real fire, you couldn’t see anything,” aeronautical engineering freshman Philip Clark said.

Although the event was a drill, one resident still found the thick fog terrifying.

“I was scared because I couldn’t see more than my hand,” nursing sophomore Gayatri Desai said. “It scares you because that happens in real life.”