SHSU, in association with campus and community organizations, will host “Team Up for Fire Safety” during the third annual Fire Prevention Week held Oct. 6-12.Banners advertising the event have been posted across campus and have brought immediate awareness.”Everybody calls me and asks me what the banners mean,” said Ellery Stevenson, SHSU safety coordinator. “That’s good; I get a chance to talk to them and lend an ear and say OK, this is what it’s about,” said Stevenson.During Fire Prevention Week, fire prevention programs will be held in dormitories and in the LSC twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon.”In the residence halls we do the fire extinguisher presentation, where we actually go outside and set a trash can on fire and we give fire extinguishers to students and let them actually fight the fires. That’s a real popular one,” said Stevenson. The purpose of Fire Prevention Week is to stimulate awareness of fire safety and fire prevention. The sponsors, Aramark, Physical Plant, Program Council, the Safety Office, University Police Department, Huntsville Fire Department and Residence Life are bonding together to promote this year’s theme of ‘Team up for Fire Safety’.”We’re going to just be promoting safety from a team perspective,” said Stevenson.Doug Greening, director of the Physical Plant, asked Stevenson to start an annual program for fire prevention week a few years ago. “This is the third year that the Physical Plant has allowed us to do this on this campus,” said Stevenson. “He [Greening] has given us the funding to buy the material to buy the banners.” The event is not held due to any previous fire inspections or possible fires on campus.”It has nothing to do with the fire safety or the fire marshal report,” said Stevenson. “Fire prevention month is celebrated all over the United States in the month of October and it had to do with the great Chicago fire that happened many years ago.”Stevenson encourages students to participate and raise the level of awareness of fire prevention during a non-emergency time.”It definitely makes the students more aware,” said Stevenson.
Sections