Live burn demonstrations and hands-on safety equipment lessons were both part of the Department of Environmental Health and Safety and Campus Residences’ effort to raise awareness for National College Fire Prevention Month on campus.

These fire safety programs are held annually in September to teach students not only how to prevent fires in kitchens and residence hall rooms, but also to put them out, as fires in kitchens and residence halls are notorious on college campuses. The number of such events increased nearly 18 percent between 1980 and 2011, according to the National Fire Protection Association.

During quad-wide demonstrations, a mock dorm room trailer was set on fire, once with the aid of sprinklers to put out the fire and once without. This allowed students to see how quickly a fire can grow out of control without proper safety equipment. More important parts of the event were evacuation, cooking safety and promotion of the use of surge protectors as opposed to extension cords.

Campus Fire Safety Day at the Student Activities Center plaza is also an aspect of the university’s goal to increase fire safety. This year, it was held on Oct. 2.

Steven Kendrick, the residence hall director of Gray College, said these annual events are always useful for students. Since there are many flammable objects in dorm rooms, preparing students for fire hazards is important.

And according to John Gallo, manager of fire safety, “topics covered include cooking with oil, heat control and how to extinguish a cooking related fire.” He added that Stony Brook’s fire safety “program was implemented to help reduce the amount of cooking related fires, specifically unattended cooking fire alarms.”

Fire safety is not a once-a-year concern for Stony Brook. The Department of Environmental Health and Safety works to increase fire safety on campus constantly. David Scarzella, the director of Residential Risk Management for Campus Residences, works closely with them to ensure the campus’s well-being.

Gallo said the fire marshals hold an event of this magnitude annually, and have done so since 2007. He added that Stony Brook has promoted fire safety since the late 1970s.

“The questions I get are about furniture, equipment and especially safety code violations,” Scarzella said of his role as liaison between Campus Residences and students. “Most, if not all, codes were put in place as a result of unfortunate tragedies, so as to prevent such events in the future,” Scarzella said.

Some of the university’s initiatives include planned fire drills once a semester per building and training resident assistants about the importance of fire safety prior to the start of each academic year. Scarzella said an emergency voice-communication system upgrade in residence halls are being finalized as well.

“The system is a tremendous asset to campus because it allows for remote communication in the event of an emergency,” Scarzella said.

He continued to say that Stony Brook also has “fire marshals available 24/7 to ensure students’ safety. To my knowledge, Stony Brook is one of the only universities in the area to have such an establishment.”