BU steps up fire prevention education
After two off-campus apartment fires that left three students dead, Boston University officials are pledging to beef up education on fire safety with e-mails, fliers, and a new website.
"It is . . . important that we not retreat to business as usual when it comes to matters of personal safety," President Robert A. Brown and dean of students Kenneth Elmore wrote in an e-mail to students Sunday. "It is true that the recent fires were accidental; however, we should increase our collective obligation to do what we can to avoid similar tragedies in the future."
BU is also doing an extra round of inspection of campus buildings to make sure fire safety systems are in order.
Officials at several other area colleges, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northeastern University, and Wentworth Institute of Technology, have sent fire-prevention reminders to students or resident advisers since the first fatal fire last month.
A national group, Campus Firewatch, says at least 19 fire fatalities have occurred across the country this academic year in off-campus student residences or privately owned fraternities. That is the highest number of fire deaths on campuses or involving student residences since the group began tracking media reports in 2000. Eighty percent of college-related fire deaths occur in off-campus housing, the group says.
Boston and Brookline officials said that they view two fires near BU within weeks of each other as a tragic coincidence, and that they do not generally have more problems with student apartments than other residences.
On Feb. 24, two BU students, Rhiannon McCuish, a 21-year-old from Mashpee, and Stephen Adelipour, a 21-year-old from Great Neck, N.Y., were killed in a fire in an apartment on Aberdeen Street in Boston. Another student was seriously injured. The blaze was started by a burning candle, apparently lit after the building lost power.
On Friday, two blocks away, on St. Mary's Street in Brookline, a fire killed Derek Crowl, a 19-year-old student from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, who was visiting a friend at BU over his spring break. Investigators believe the fire started after hot embers from a charcoal grill on the back porch smoldered on the wooden deck and a couch before bursting into flames around 6 a.m.
Brookline prohibits residents from using grills on porches.
BU includes fire safety in its freshman orientation and sets strict rules about the use of appliances in campus housing, for example, banning coffee makers, torchere-style halogen lamps, and all microwaves except one model rented from the university. The university also has fire-safety tips on its website, including a page tailored to off-campus apartments.
But Elmore said BU now wants to be more aggressive about making sure all students, especially those living off campus, get the message on fire prevention, as well as other aspects of personal safety. He pointed out that students living independently for the first time may not be familiar with basic safety rules familiar to most adults. "We need to say: 'You are managing a household. You are managing your life a little bit more. You need to think about keeping yourself safe,' " he said.
Within a few weeks, BU plans to unveil a new fire prevention website. Elmore said the university would probably also communicate more with students on the topic in other ways, including slipping fliers under doors in off-campus areas of Allston and Brighton with high student concentrations.
Fire officials said the two fires do not indicate that students are unusually careless or that colleges are not doing enough to educate them about safety.
"Given the number of colleges we have, we really don't have fire safety problems," said Steve MacDonald, spokesman for the Boston Fire Department. "The colleges around here, at least the large ones, do a pretty good job of orienting their students."
Boston and Brookline officials did not have statistics available on fire emergency calls involving off-campus student housing.
Campus Firewatch identifies four factors most likely to cause fires in student housing: lack of sprinklers, missing or disabled smoke alarms, careless disposal of smoking materials, and impaired judgment from alcohol consumption.
Marcella Bombardieri can be reached at bombardieri@globe.com. 