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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Joanna Climer, 847-768-3404, and Diane Hurns, 847-768-3413
DES PLAINES, IL (August 29, 2007) – Each year many students lose their lives or are injured in preventable fires. As students move into college residence halls, off-campus housing or fraternity/sorority houses for the school year, the American Society of Safety Engineers’ (ASSE) Fire Prevention Branch urges them to be aware of life-saving fire prevention knowledge. ASSE has prepared and is distributing free fire safety tip sheets and a flier with information on how students can stay safe.
There have been a number of on and off-campus fire tragedies over the years. The majority of campus fires occur off-campus. Earlier this month, a Bradley University student died in an off-campus house fire; the cause is under investigation. The building was not equipped with an automatic fire sprinkler system. In 2006, an off-campus fire that started in a plastic container used for discarding smoking materials took the life of one Cornell University student and injured another; in 2005, an off-campus arson related fire killed one University of Maryland student and critically injured another; in 2004, a Greek-Fraternity house fire with an unknown cause killed three Alpha Tau Omega Fraternity members at the University of Mississippi; in 2003, five Ohio State University students were killed from smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide poisoning caused by an arson related off-campus fire; and in 1996, a fire at a University of North Carolina Fraternity house killed five and injured three Phi Gamma Delta Fraternity members. Continue...
In an effort to reduce the number of on and off-campus fires, the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) is providing this information to create awareness and increase student safety both on and off campus. For more information and tips on on/off-campus fire prevention go to www.asse.org/newsroom. Continue... (pdf)