Fire Safety
To escape a fire, you should:
- Check closed doors for heat before you open them. If you are escaping through a closed door, use the back of your hand to feel the top of the door, the doorknob, and the crack between the door and door frame before you open it. Never use the palm of your hand or fingers to test for heat - burning those areas could impair your ability to escape a fire (i.e., ladders and crawling).
- Hot Door - Do not open. Escape through a window. If you cannot escape, hang a white or light-colored sheet outside the window, alerting fire fighters to your presence.
- Cool Door - Open slowly and ensure fire and/or smoke is not blocking your escape route. If your escape route is blocked, shut the door immediately and use an alternate escape route, such as a window. If clear, leave immediately through the door and close it behind you. Be prepared to crawl. Smoke and heat rise. The air is clearer and cooler near the floor.
- Crawl low under any smoke to your exit - heavy smoke and poisonous gases collect first along the ceiling.
- Close doors behind you as you escape to delay the spread of the fire.
- Stay out once you are safely out. Do not reenter. Call 9-1-1. (button below)
Only use a fire extinguisher if the fire is very small and you have been trained to do so safely. If you cannot put out the fire, leave immediately and make sure the building alarm is activated and emergency personnel notifie
Fire Alarm Evacuation Procedures
Fire presents one of the greatest potential hazards members of the college community may face. Not only can lives be endangered, but also significant damage to residence halls can disrupt living arrangements for many students.
It is the policy that every alarm is treated as a valid alarm that may pose a major risk to life and property.
Below is the procedure that each person should follow when the fire alarm goes off in a building:
- Never assume it is a false alarm.
- The safe evacuation of the building is first priority.
- When an alarm sounds, all individuals in the building should meet at a pre- arranged place.
- On the way to the meeting place, quickly check the floors and note whether the pull stations have been pulled and/or whether there are signs of a fire.
- Call Marietta College Police and with signs of fire call 911.
- The purpose for calling Marietta College Police is to inform that the fire alarm has gone off in the building. In the event of a false alarm, Marietta College Police can notify the Fire Department to avoid having them respond.
- The alarm should not be turned off and no one should be let back into the building until the Fire Department has arrived and/or Marietta College Police has indicated that it is safe to do so, even if the fire has been extinguished prior to the Fire Department’s arrival.