Dorm-dweller responses varied about lack of fire sprinklers

"I don't think the residents here are very concerned about the fact that there are no sprinklers," Matthew Johnson said Thursday. Johnson, an electrical engineering sophomore, is a resident assistant at Yavapai Residence Hall.

"I don't know if it's because they're ignorant or because they take precautions," he added.

Despite fire codes that require sprinklers, three residence halls - Babcock Inn, Yavapai and Hopi Lodge - are not equipped with working fire sprinkler systems.

All halls do have fire alarms though, Steve Holland, director of Risk Management and Fire Safety, said Wednesday.

Pre-pharmacy freshman Tyler DeJarnette said he would like to see sprinklers installed in Hopi Lodge.

Earlier this semester, a Hopi resident's pillow caught on fire because it was too close to a halogen lamp. Despite the fact that the room was filled with smoke, the hall's fire alarm did not activate.

Kalb Stevenson, a biology sophomore, said he dumped water on the burning pillow and threw it out of his window.

The smoldering pillow landed outside Graham-Greenlee Residence Hall and set off their fire alarm.

"If we had sprinklers, we wouldn't have had that problem," said Hopi resident Lisa Franklin, an animal science sophomore.

Yavapai resident Andrea Melillo, an English sophomore, said she was unconcerned about the lack of a dormwide sprinkler system.

"I feel pretty confident that we could get out OK if there was a fire," Melillo said. "I used to live in Arizona-Sonora and I was more concerned with the sprinklers going off when there was no fire."

Hopi Lodge resident Jennifer Lewis said she thought Hopi was safe, even without sprinklers.

"Since this is a substance-free dorm, it's unlikely that anyone will be smoking," said Lewis, a political science freshman.

"Plus, it's not like we're Coronado, where tons of people would have to evacuate if there was a fire," she added.

Hopi is a one-story building with 122 students while Coronado Residence Hall's 804 occupants live on nine floors.

Johnson said Yavapai residents generally follow hall rules for fire prevention, including not having halogen lamps or lighting candles. He said he has not reprimanded anyone for smoking either.

Yavapai resident Andy Folkening, an engineering sophomore, seemed ambivalent about the whole issue.

"In some aspects, I'm not sure that having a fire alarm is enough," he said. "But the sprinklers may be adding to the problem more than they may be solving."

"Most of the times the sprinklers go off is by people bumping it," he added.