Queen’s University to Be Awarded for Reducing Malicious Fire Alarms

Published on: 2012/08/02 - in News

Queen’s University is to be honored with a provincial award for their dramatic reduction of false fire alarms in student residences over the past two school years.

UPDATE, Aug 2:  The initial presentation was postponed. The article has been updated with the new time and date.

The Jim Copeland Award will be presented to Kathryn Morrissey, from the Queen’s Residence Life program, by Assistant Fire Chief Robb Kidd on campus Tuesday, Aug. 7 at Leggett Hall.

The prestigious award is bestowed each year by the Ontario Municipal Fire Prevention Officers Association. Kingston Fire & Rescue staff nominated the University’s Residence Life group for their “outstanding, proactive response to a serious problem with false alarms in student residences”.

During the 2010 school year, Kingston Fire & Rescue and Residence Life formed an initiative to lower the number of false alarms at student residence buildings at Queen’s.

That project began with an inspection program that was followed by an educational program, changes in residence policies, as well as additional security measures. That initiative resulted in a 96 per cent decline in malicious fire alarms during the 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 school years.

“Malicious fire alarms pose a serious risk and danger to our entire community; eliminating needless alarms allows firefighters to respond more readily to legitimate emergencies and promotes a culture of safety and responsibility on campus,” said Fire Inspector Ted Posadowski.

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Photo source: Wikipedia