The University and its students are participating in Campus Fire Safety Month this September.
The Campus Fire Safety Month campaign is a nationwide effort to raise awareness and teach fire prevention methods to bring fire safety to the forefront of college campuses.
Jon Haney, University safety and health specialist, said it is important for students to be exposed to fire safety education since most students haven’t participated in such education prior to college.
“It is important that they realize the importance of fire safety, that there are dangers from fire and that they should do everything they can to educate themselves and protect themselves, regardless if they live on or off campus,” Haney said.
Every Tuesday of the month Auburn’s Risk Management and Safety department will be throwing an event to promote Campus Fire Safety Month, Haney said.
“It helps students realize they’re not invincible and they should educate themselves and take all the necessary steps to learn what to do if they were ever in a fire event and also help prevent fires,” Haney said. “The best way to survive a fire is to prevent one from happening and prevention always starts with education.”
There will be a fire extinguisher training event on Sept. 20 to teach students how to safely use a fire extinguisher with the new Bullex Bullseye Laser Driven Fire Extinguisher Training system.
There will also be two special guest speakers, Shawn Simons and Alvaro Llanos, showing their documentary, "After The Fire: a true story of heroes and cowards”.
“We have invited two gentlemen, who at one time were students at Seton Hall University, and in their freshman year they were involved in a dorm fire,” Haney said. “They survived this fire but they had 3 class mates who perished in the fire and 56 others who were injured.”
Shawn Simons and Alvaro Llanos travel the country, touring colleges and high schools to tell their story and show their 50-minute documentary to answer any questions.
“I have personally witnessed the presentation and it is very powerful,” Haney said. “It could be one of those things that could be life changing for someone because it doesn’t just cover fire safety. It is one of those inspiring stories that talks about overcoming adversity and those different things life throws in your way.”
Haney said it's important for all students to hear the story because anyone can relate to it.
Haney said there will be free food at the event and there will be tickets drawings to win door prizes, such as autographed pictures from coaches, various
gifts and one $100 gift card to Kinnucan’s.
The Department of Risk Management and Safety won’t be doing any presentations pertaining to the recent Lowder or Bike fires that took place on campus.
“It is one of those things that if someone would like to talk about them at the events we’d be glad to talk to them about it, but we don’t have a specific program for presentation where we are talking about these specific fires,” Haney said. “At the same time these fires keep the importance of fire and life safety in the forefront of people’s minds."
Haney said he hopes these recent campus fires will encourage students to participate in Campus Fire Safety Month.
"Hopefully with the recent things that have happened then they will be more receptive to the events we are offering," Haney said.
Haney said the Risk Management and Safety Department are always available for fire safety education and will continue to offer as much fire safety education as they can to the campus community.
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