Dorm Room Fire Group

This Press Release is available  for publishing.

NEW FIRE RESISTANT PAINT CAN SAVE STUDENT LIVES

By Don Harney

Freelance Journalist

BOSTON, MA - A fire erupts in the corner of a college dormitory room. The flames lick the foot of the bed and quickly tear up the wall, igniting the clothing hanging in the closet. Within minutes there is no way out. The room is fully engulfed in flames and the temperature reaches 1400 degrees. It is too late to save anyone in the room

Meanwhile, a fire breaks out in a room just yards away at the same exact time. The flames burst out in the same location at the foot of the bed, yet do not ignite the wall with the ferocity of the flames in the neighboring room. The flames merely linger, contained in one area as the inferno in the room next door pours out of the front doorway and blasts through the rear window sending shards of glass spewing all over the ground outside.

Fortunately, neither room is occupied by students. Both rooms have been constructed at the Boston Fire Department training facility at Moon Island for a test burn on October 1, 2005. They are virtually exact replica dorm rooms, complete with bunk beds, computers and ‘Go Red Sox’ banners. The only difference between the rooms is the paint coating on them.

The mock dorm room which goes up in flames faster is merely coated with a traditional latex paint. The other test room is coated with an epoxy based intumescent fire resistive coating. This new, cutting edge technology in paint coatings has been proven to “reduce or eliminate the spread of fire on a variety of existing building products” according to product stats.

“This substance is a second generation fire resistant paint developed for the aviation industry and the military. It is now being introduced for commercial use,” says Lee DeVito of Firepro Engineering.

The results of the October 1st dorm room test burn on Moon Island convince Boston Fire Officials that these fire resistant coatings can save lives.

“The intumescent paint did work,” says Boston Fire Department Captain and drillmaster Hugh Duffy, who oversaw the test, “The difference that I saw was that it prevented the re-radiation from the walls to come back to the materials that surrounded it, namely a bureau and bedding. The building that had just the latex paint re-radiated that heat such that the room flashed-over a significant amount of time prior to the intumescent paint room.”

 “The point of flash-over is the point of no return. Nobody can survive that. That extra time allows a person to successfully escape from a fire,” adds Captain Duffy.

This past year has been a particularly deadly year for college student fires according to Everett Fire Department Deputy Chief Paul Calderwood, who has twenty years prior experience as the Fire Marshall at Tufts University.

“This year was one of the deadliest years on college campuses. In April alone, we lost five students in three different fires. Since 2000, we’ve lost 75 students,” he comments.

College students seem to be particularly vulnerable to fire fatalities partially because of their new found independence in on- and off-campus housing.

“Seventy-five percent of student fatalities are in off-campus housing,” Calderwood says, adding, “That’s where we run into a problem. These are non supervised housing setups. Candles are probably the number one killer of college students today.”

The contents of today’s typical college student’s room is also a factor in the recent increase in student fire fatalities. Calderwood reflects back to a time when the typical dormitory room was solid woods with very little plastic.

“Back then, the burn rate in a room was probably 8000 BTUs (British Thermal Units) per pound,” he says, “Now what we are dealing with; with computers, stereos, televisions and fabrics…. That rate is up to 18,000 to 22,000 BTUs per pound. From a firefighter’s standpoint, that means I have very little time between ignition, finding the fire, getting (the occupants) out and getting us in to put (the fire) out.”

Barbara Spalding, Project Manager of Construction Services for Wesleyan University echoes Calderwood’s concern about the current state of fire prevention and protection in both on and off-campus student housing.

“Sprinkler systems are not required in a lot of on-campus dormitories,” Spalding says, adding that off-campus housing fire detection and suppression is even more of a concern because it is difficult to regulate.

This new technology of fire resistive coatings should now be an integral part of a balanced design in college housing fire protection, according to Spalding.

“This paint clearly reduced the flame spread in this test. This emphasis on redundant passive protection is critical,” she says, adding, “I would feel better even if this coating was built into the kitchens where many fires are generated.”

Pleased with the results of the dorm room test burn, Boston Fire Commissioner Paul Christian emphasizes the importance of this test.

“We are totally committed to life safety in this city,” Commissioner Christian says, adding, “Of particular interest to us is the college dormitory situations… We have tens of thousands of students who come in here every year. Unfortunately, across the country every year you are going to read about college fires in which young students lose their lives in their rooms. If anything can be done to extend the time for escape before the room temperature gets high enough to cause serious injury or even death, we are behind it 100%.