Skip to main content
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Campus & Community
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
Sections
  • All News
  • Arts & Culture
  • Business & Economy
  • Campus & Community
  • Health & Society
  • Media, Law & Policy
  • STEM
  • Veterans
  • University Statements
  • Syracuse University Impact
  • |
  • The Peel
  • Athletics
  • Home
  • About
  • Faculty Experts
  • For The Media
  • ’Cuse Conversations Podcast
  • Topics
    • Alumni
    • Events
    • Faculty
    • Students
    • All Topics
  • Contact
  • Submit
Campus & Community

Fire Training Academy Provides Moments of Shock and Awe

Monday, August 11, 2014, By Keith Kobland
Share
As part of the Residence Life Fire Safety Academy, a mock room is set ablaze.  Firefighters are standing nearby to extinguish the flames.

As part of the Residence Life Fire Safety Academy, a mock room is set ablaze. Firefighters are standing nearby to extinguish the flames.

For David Grimes it was a real eye opener, even if he couldn’t see clearly. Grimes was trying to navigate his way to safety in what appeared to be a smoke-filled hallway. The smoke was theatrical; the experience was real.

“It was an ‘aha’ moment,” says Grimes, a residence director at Day Hall and a year removed from going through the Residence Life Fire Safety Academy at Syracuse University. “It can be disorienting if you haven’t been there before. Thankfully, I knew this hallway so it helped.”

An RD navigates a smokey hallway during fire safety training day.

An RD navigates a smoky hallway during fire safety training day.

Grimes will get another chance to experience the feeling during this year’s training exercise, to be held Thursday, Aug. 14, on Mount Olympus. This is the ninth year for the academy, which is required for all of the University’s residence hall directors (RDs) and resident advisers (RAs). The fire safety academy is a day packed with interactive activities beyond a walk through a smoke-filled hallway and discussion of fire safety procedures and codes. Participants also get a chance to see how fire sprinklers work (each residence hall room is equipped with them); get hands- on training in the use of fire extinguishers; and watch a mock dorm room go up in flames.

“The shock and awe of burning a room before the RAs was highly effective,” says Karess Gillespie, an RD at Flint Hall who has been through the academy five times before. “It never loses its impact. You can learn all you want in a classroom, but to see it in person is shocking.”

Classroom style used to be the way fire-safety training was handled, says Bill Longcore, associate director of the Office of Residence Life, which also plays a key role in organizing the academy. “We deemed it ineffective,” he says. “The hands-on nature of much of what we do now impresses upon students the danger associated with being in a fire emergency, and provides a real-life experience that helps them to appreciate the potentially deadly consequences of an uncontrolled fire in a residential setting.”

It was a fire much like what Longcore describes that occurred on the Seton Hall campus in 2000, killing three students. In the wake of the fire, New York State recommended that all colleges and universities hold fire safety training. Syracuse University takes it to the next step.

“The most important takeaway of the day is for the RAs and RDs to understand the associated dangers of fires and how to react accordingly, so they’re able to relay potentially life-saving information to their fellow students during their residence hall floor meetings,” says John Rossiter, safety manager at Environmental Health and Safety Services (EHSSO). The first of the fire safety academies was held in 2006, and since that time, nearly 2,000 students and staff have received training.

For participants, it was a day well spent.

“It was absolutely worthwhile,” says Grimes. He says students and staff are “visual, and want to experience first hand what it looks like when a fire extinguisher goes off, what happens when a sprinkler head discharges or what it’s like to navigate a smoke- filled hallway. You hope you never have to go through the real experience, but if you do, I’ll remember the training I received. When they hear that students have lost their lives in residence hall fires, they pay attention.”

Gillespie has put her training into action. She recalls an incident in which a sprinkler head discharged after a student accidentally grabbed onto it trying to break a fall. “I knew how much water would come from the sprinkler head, and the training definitely prepared me for what to expect and the damage it could create.”

But Gillespie says the training goes beyond that.

“I think it can show real context as to how it affects them (RAs), what the information that we’re giving them means and helps them feel comfortable about taking ownership of their spaces,” she says. “For senior staff, when we’re telling students about fire hazards, we’re not saying this meaninglessly, but with full knowledge and experience of what can happen. Even more, these are skills that stick with you when you leave Syracuse University. I know how to point the fire extinguisher, I know how to move towards an exit if there is fire and smoke. This is a great resource to help prepare students to be full-fledged citizens. This is how we help them beyond their job as an RA.”

An RA is trained in the proper use of a fire extinguisher as part of the fire safety training day.

An RA is trained in the proper use of a fire extinguisher as part of the fire safety training day.

An event of this nature could not take place without plenty of help and cooperation. Along with Residence Life and EHSSO, FixIt crews play a role, as does the Syracuse Fire Department and the New York State Office of Fire Prevention and Control.

  • Author

Keith Kobland

  • Recent
  • Syracuse Views Summer 2025
    Monday, June 23, 2025, By News Staff
  • Tiffany Xu Named Harry der Boghosian Fellow for 2025-26
    Friday, June 20, 2025, By Julie Sharkey
  • Registration Open for Esports Campus Takeover Hosted by University and Gen.G
    Thursday, June 19, 2025, By Matt Michael
  • 2 Whitman Students Earn Prestigious AWESOME Scholarship
    Tuesday, June 17, 2025, By News Staff
  • WiSE Hosts the 2025 Norma Slepecky Memorial Lecture and Undergraduate Research Prize Award Ceremony
    Friday, June 13, 2025, By News Staff

More In Campus & Community

Jorge Morales ’26 Named a 2025 Beinecke Scholar

Jorge Morales ’26, a double major in history and anthropology in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs with a minor in English and textual studies in the College of Arts and Sciences, has been awarded the highly competitive…

Registration Open for Esports Campus Takeover Hosted by University and Gen.G

Syracuse University and global esports and gaming organization Gen.G have opened general registration at campustakeover.gg for its first Campus Takeover Sept. 20-21. The two-day conference will bring students and administrators to Syracuse to highlight career opportunities within the esports industry…

2 Whitman Students Earn Prestigious AWESOME Scholarship

For the first time in the 12-year history of the program, both nominees from the Whitman School of Management have been selected as recipients of the 2025 AWESOME Excellence in Education Scholarship, a prestigious honor awarded to top-performing undergraduate women…

Whitman’s Johan Wiklund Named a Top Scholar Globally for Business Research Publications

The Whitman School of Management’s Distinguished Professor Johan Wiklund was recently listed as one of the most prolific business and economic research scholars globally, according to “What We Know About the Science of Science in Business and Economics? Insights From…

Katsitsatekanoniahkwa Destiny Lazore ’26 Receives Prestigious Udall Scholarship

Katsitsatekanoniahkwa Destiny Lazore, a rising senior communication and rhetorical studies major in the College of Visual and Performing Arts and political science major in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs and College of Arts and Sciences (with a…

Subscribe to SU Today

If you need help with your subscription, contact sunews@syr.edu.

Connect With Us

  • X
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
Social Media Directory

For the Media

Find an Expert Follow @SyracuseUNews
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Youtube
  • LinkedIn
  • @SyracuseU
  • @SyracuseUNews
  • Social Media Directory
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Campus Status
  • Syracuse.edu
© 2025 Syracuse University News. All Rights Reserved.