It’s all about fighting fire with fire.
So when the St. Catharines fire department sets a dorm room at Brock University ablaze next week, albeit a mock one, it will be doing so with the best of intentions.The exercise is an attempt to drive home a safety message to young people, who aren’t necessarily thinking about stacks of books blocking hallways or frayed extension cords ready to spark when they move out on their own.
“When you’re 18 to 24, you’re invincible,” said St. Catharines Fire Chief Mark Mehlenbacher.The department is hoping to overcome that mentality by directly targeting that age group with a fire safety campaign for the first time.The Niagara program — a partnership of Brock University, Niagara College and fire associations — is the first of its kind in the province.Launched in conjunction with orientation week, it will include a web-based campaign of six two-minute videos showing the impact fire can have. Mehlenbacher said nothing brings home the danger of fire faster than watching something burn.“In one to two minutes, you see how fast the fire has burned and how black the smoke is. In one to two minutes, they’re not getting out of their house. That’s how fast things happen.”The initiative was prompted by a number of fires and close calls involving students on and off Ontario campuses last year.
A building fire at McMaster University left 600 students homeless in October, and a Wilfrid Laurier University student died in April after a residence fire.In St. Catharines last November, five Brock students fled their burning Cumming Street home. The fire, believed to be started by a candle, gutted the house.And this July, a mix of Brock and Niagara College students were burned out of their St. Paul Street apartments after a deliberately set blaze in another unit destroyed several residences. Mehlenbacher said there are fire safety programs for children and older people, but nothing for this age group, many of whom don’t think about smoke detectors.But he said today’s fires burn faster and hotter because of the amount of plastic in homes, including computers and televisions. With plastic burning two to three times hotter than wood, people have less time to escape a fire than they did in previous decades.
On Monday night, a three-sided structure filled with furniture and accessories to look like a dorm room will be burned in a campus parking lot. Plexiglass will then be installed in place of the missing wall and the room will be put on display at Brock’s vendor and club fair.The eye-catching display will launch the local video campaign being unveiled Tuesday at www.knowfire.ca. The videos were made over the summer using firefighters and actors.The program is sponsored by Niagara College, Brock University, the Niagara Regional Fire Chiefs Association and the Ontario Municipal Fire Prevention Officers Association.“Fire safety is paramount in terms of education and information we want to share with them,” said Brigitte Chicki, director of student services at Niagara College.Brad Clarke, manager of student and community outreach at Brock, said it’s vital to ensure fire safety is at the forefront of students’ minds.
Clarke said the campaign’s goal is to reinforce that awareness and show students how to prevent life-threatening situations from occurring.Donna Gill, from the St. Catharines fire prevention office, said the campaign targets not just students, but all young people living away from home in that age bracket. She said the videos aren’t preachy.“This is what the reality is, and here’s how you can avert that tragedy,” she said.“We know they’re going to party. Make sure your ways are clear, make sure the music isn’t too loud so you can hear a smoke alarm go off.”
