Fire Prevention Week

Oct. 6th ~ 12th

    PRESQUE ISLE, Maine — When students head to college and move into a dorm, they settle into a home-away-from-home. One of the things the University of Maine at Presque Isle aims to do, in addition to acclimating students to campus and connecting them with the many offices and services available to them, is to ensure they are prepared should a fire occur.    UMPI officials are pleased to note that, ahead of Fire Prevention Week, students living in the residence halls are fire-safety ready. Here’s how.
The Residence Life Office at UMPI takes an educative and proactive approach to fire safety and prevention in the residence halls. Training and preparation of student resident assistant and security officer staff is key to this effort. In August and September of each year, these student staff members learn the protocols and conduct multiple drills until evacuation times are below three minutes. During this training period, the Presque Isle Fire Department also instructs the staff members to correctly use fire safety equipment, such as fire extinguishers.
Once the student population arrives, the Residence Life Office conducts drills in the residence halls once per semester. These unannounced fire drills recently resulted in evacuation times of less than three minutes each.
In addition to these drills, each residence hall room is inspected for fire safety at least three times per semester. Residence hall staff members make certain that all fire doors are properly shut during their evening rounds to minimize the spread of fire if one did occur.
The university works hard to create a safe and engaging environment for its entire campus community, and these efforts ensure that students living in UMPI’s residence halls are prepared in the event of a fire-related emergency.