DORM RESIDENTS LEARN OF HIGH-RISE FIRE SAFETY STEPS

Fire alarms at the Towers Complex are a frequent occurrence, but even though they almost always turn out to be false alarms, students need to take each one seriously.

More than 100 residents of the high-rise dormitory on the campus of Southeast Missouri State University turned out at the complex's cafeteria Wednesday night for a presentation on fire safety.

The presentation was conducted by Michael Morgan of the Cape Girardeau Fire Department as part of National Fire Prevention Week.

Morgan said pranks such as routinely pulling alarms can desensitize people to the fact a major fire could possibly happen at Towers.

"Pranks like that are unnecessary and give us a sense of crying wolf up here," Morgan said. "When we come up to a scene we don't know what is going to happen."

Residents too are accustomed to false alarms.

"That is the immediate reaction because it happens so much more than a fire actually happens," said Laura Nielsen, a sophomore at Southeast and a resident of Towers West.

But she avoids the temptation to dismiss the alarm when it goes off.

"I get up and go outside," Nielsen said. "You never really know if it's false, so it's better to be safe than sorry."

Morgan told residents of a November 1988 major fire in Towers South in which several rooms were gutted and there was massive smoke and heat damage to an entire floor.

The blaze started as a prank when one student slipped a burning piece of paper under the door of a neighbor, unaware that no one was in the room. Flammable items on the interior of the door ignited and the whole room went up in flames in a matter of minutes. A short time later the entire floor was filled with smoke and the air was superheated.

Morgan said the only reason no one was injured in that fire was because a quick-acting residential adviser evacuated everyone from the floor. If everyone had not escaped quickly, there would have certainly been deaths, Morgan said.

The girl who started the fire was expelled from school and criminally charged.

Morgan said Cape Girardeau firefighters were so used to responding to false calls at the complex that they were initially unprepared.

"In all honestly, the fire crew had come up here so many times on false alarms it came up without its turnout gear," Morgan said. "When the captain opened the door to that floor he almost freaked."

As part of other Fire Prevention Week activities, the department has spent time conducting fire safety instruction in schools throughout the city.

Also, the department has given away more than 35 smoke detectors purchased with proceeds raised through department fund-raising efforts.