|
By: Ian Essling
SUGAR GROVE, Illinois - Waubonsee students received a chance to practice their fire evacuation skills on Friday, October 6th, when the campus fire alarm interrupted classes and forced students outside.
"The administration office in Bodie smelled smoke, and called campus police," Joe Monstwillo, Campus Police Chief, stated. "Upon arriving, campus police confirmed the smoke, and I pulled the [fire] alarm to initiate the call."
Kane County dispatch received the call at 9:32 a.m., and units from the Sugar Grove fire department arrived on scene at 9:37 a.m., and entered the building to determine the cause of the smoke. Eventually, firefighters from both Sugar Grove and Elburn arrived to answer the alarm. The department personnel used a heat-imaging device and located the hottest item in the office where the smoke was reported, which was the large photocopier. "Once they determined that [the copier] was the hottest thing in the room, we went on the assumption [that the copier had overheated] and moved the machine outside," Monstwillo explained.
Several students commented on what they felt was the tardiness of the fire department's response, but Monstwillo explained that he felt the response was timely. "With situations like this, you never hear people say 'how'd you get here so quick?' because time just seems to go in slow motion. I thought the response was timely, and if you would have put a stopwatch to it, I don't think it was more than ten minutes," Monstwillo said. As shown above, the first units did arrive on the scene within five minutes.
Students evacuated their classrooms, then moved outside for safety reasons. While Monstwillo said the evacuation went "very well," there will be some fine tuning to the plan next time. "We kept people a bit too close to the building; had it been a real fire, there may have been some injuries," Monstwillo stated, "We also need to make sure there is a clear path for emergency vehicles."
"We appreciated the students' cooperation today; the evacuation went well, and it was a good practice exercise," Monstwillo explained.
No injuries were reported, and students were able to re-enter the buildings in time for their 10:00 a.m. classes.
|
