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Around this time last year, a fire broke out in an apartment on Aberdeen Street, killing two Boston University students. The culprit of the accident was a candle, and the two residents of the apartment were unable to rouse from sleep and escape. One cannot help but wonder what the likelihood is of this happening at BC.
Faulty smoke detectors, grills on upper porches, blocked fire escapes, and chained doors are considered violations of the fire code, said Steve MacDonald, Boston Fire Department spokesman.
Hilary Waldo, A&S '08, and her roommates live in an apartment on Gerald Road, in which the smoke detector was not working for some time. It was oversensitive and, "we disabled it because it was annoying," she said. On another occasion, when neither she nor her roommates were home, "there was smoke in our apartment," she said, "And the fire alarm was going off for hours and nobody noticed." She does not know the exact cause of the smoke, but says the neighbors eventually called the fire department.
Waldo said her apartment has been inspected a few times and, "we would call our property manager if there were problems."
Some other off-campus students said that they experienced even greater difficulties when they tried to resolve fire safety issues.
Laura Ting, A&S '08, lived in 2000 Commonwealth Ave. and had a fire scare.
Ting was microwaving a potato in a disposable Ziploc container when suddenly, the potato caught on fire. The fire grew quickly and soon most of the microwave was in flames. "The alarm went off and nothing happened. Nobody came, nobody made me leave," Ting said.
She said this was a common occurrence at 2000 Commonwealth Ave. and that often when smoke detectors or fire alarms went off, there was little or no response on behalf of either residents or management.
Finally, Ting was able to calm the fire and extinguish it.
Macdonald said that many code violations are discovered after residents complain.
"When we find a code violation or someone lets us know of what may be a code violation, we investigate," he said. "If we found a violation we would issue an abatement order. This is a legal document made out to the building owner. It states the fire-code violation and asks that it be fixed at once. We would then follow up after a couple of days."
One of the main problems is that students do not file complaints or make concerns known regarding the safety of their homes.
Other times students are careless when it comes to protecting their homes against fires because they do not realize the seriousness of certain violations.
Some violations are very severe and become a life-safety issue.
Macdonald said that in such severe cases, they could order the immediate closing of a building. Serious violations may not be discovered if residents do not take action.
Reporting a fire-safety concern may be much easier than many students think. Donald Wood is a fire safety officer for Boston College and said, "One of my responsibilities is to be the liaison to the local fire departments. As such, I have a responsibility to inform these departments of any issues that I am made aware of regarding off-campus housing safety violations."
This fact is clear as Wood said, "Quite honestly, in my seven years working for Boston College I have not had a complaint made to me." There seems to be a missing link considering that many students who live off campus live in fire-prone environments.
The people whose job it is to resolve fire-safety issues are not aware of any problems. The resources and mechanisms to address these safety issues exist, but often go unutilized.
The administration is working to address this breakdown in communication.
"We are currently in the process of setting up a schedule of inspections for the properties that BC manages that house our off-campus students. This process has not yet been completed," Wood said.
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