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Improve Safety for Residential Life at MIT
Improving fire-safety and life-safety in our dormitories is a goal of several
MIT departments: EHS, Facilities, Housing, and Residential Life. Our emphasis
is on prevention. This is a summary of ways that MIT has been achieving this
goal.
Prevention: Education, training, inspections
- Post Evacuation Maps and prepare Emergency Action Plans, update 1/year,
more often if needed. (started in the early 1980’s)
- Provide Safety information/ policy in orientation packet. Each student resident
signs that they have read it and will abide by the rules and regulations.
This has been done for more than 20 years.
- Post “What to do in case of a fire” on each residential room
door, such as in hotels. (since late 1980’s)
- Train Graduate Student “Resident Tutors”, who live in the undergraduate
dormitories (since mid 1990’s)
- Conduct Fire Drills in every dormitory starting more than 4 decades ago.
- Form a Fire Safety Committee with representatives from Housing Management,
Housemaster, Dean’s Office and EHS Safety Program in the late 1990’s.
- Meet with all House Managers periodically to update them about safety issues.
- Inspect all residential rooms. http://web.mit.edu/housing/firesafety/index.html
Fire safety was incorporated in 1999.
- Correct safety issues found during the Cambridge Building Inspector’s
annual inspection. (since late 1970’s)
Detection, Suppression, Containment
- Retrofit the existing dormitories and build new buildings with fire sprinkler
systems and life safety features. The safety director initiated this more
than 2 decades ago.
- Maintain and improve existing fire-safety and life-safety systems is a priority.
During fire drills, every floor is checked to verify that the alarms and strobe
lights are working. Any problems are repaired ASAP. This has been done for
many years.
Improved coordination of Emergency Response
During the evenings, weekends and holidays a housing manager is on campus. On-call
personnel were trained in 2001.
Independent Living Groups
EHS also advises the Independent Living Groups on improving fire/ life safety
and is involved in the annual inspections by the Cambridge Building Inspector
and fire insurance carrier. This includes fraternities.
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