We're all grown up now. Let's act like it.
This means being responsible: Taking care of your belongings and making sure you don't catch anything on fire - such as your dorm room.
A lit candle was left unattended, which caused a small fire in Bryan Hall on Friday. Although the fire was on the third floor and was contained to that dorm room, the alarm prompted everyone in the building to evacuate. No one was hurt, but damages could run as high as $10,000.
Dorm room fires are few and far between, considering the number of students living on campus. But everyone knows candles are not allowed on campus, along with halogen lamps and indoor grills (like the George Foreman grill), because these items could start fires if unattended.
There's always the risk of an electrical fire. In the confines of a dorm room with only three outlets, students rely heavily on extension cords and power strips. Some students might even use more than one power strip per outlet and then pack them with various electric cords.
This shouldn't be an issue.
Many students have candles in their rooms already. It's common sense to keep an eye on the flame and it's definitely a no-brainer to make sure the candle is always attended. Although it might seem like common sense, it still happened.
Even though the university wants students to be reminded that candles are forbidden in dorm rooms, it's a situation they really don't have control over. There is no way to enforce keeping candles out of every dorm room on campus.
If the university wants to truly take action against fire-causing items, the resident mentors should be required to make daily sweeps of the rooms on their floor. The number of items plugged into an outlet should be regulated. Students could be fined every time a candle, George Foreman grill or halogen lamp is found in their room.
But in reality, it isn't feasible for resident mentors to monitor each room and, more importantly, it shouldn't be their responsibility to find a few candles. This shouldn't be that big of a problem that would require a "Gestapo" to investigate.
Being nagged about fire safety seems unnecessary considering we're all adults here. But without caution, a future fire might spread to more than one room.
