Smoke Alarms + Sprinklers + Closed Doors = Lives Saved in Dorm Fires

These post-fire photographs of the dorm rooms show the difference a sprinkler makes. There is little visible damage the in the top photo that had a sprinkler in the room; there was no sprinkler in the dorm room in the lower picture. Credit: NIST View hi-resolution image.

Experimenting on a
university dormitory that was scheduled to be torn down, fire
researchers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) have demonstrated that the correct combination of automatic fire
sprinkler systems, smoke alarms and closed doors provided enough time
and safe conditions for residents to escape safely and for firefighters
to perform their job without undue hazard.

The study’s goal was to compare the hazard
levels created by room fires in dormitory buildings with and without
sprinklers in the room where the fire starts. Researchers used a dorm at
the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark., that was scheduled to
be replaced with a high-rise building.

Fires create many potentially fatal hazards,
including high heat, loss of visibility and—what can be the most
critical risk—toxic gases. In addition to monitoring thermal conditions
and visibility, researchers also measured the oxygen, carbon monoxide
and carbon dioxide levels to determine the tenability, that is, survival
conditions, on the fire floor.

The five rooms used in the experiment were
furnished as typical dorms are and included clothing, books and
furniture. Smoke alarms were installed in the rooms and the corridors.
The smoke alarms activated within 30 seconds of ignition of a trash
container in a dorm room.

Experiments 1 and 2 were conducted with the
dorm room door and windows closed and in both the experiments the
corridor remained tenable, which would allow other students to exit
safely past the room. Rooms for experiments 2 and 3 had automatic fire
sprinklers installed. The automatic fire sprinklers activated within two
minutes after ignition in both experiments. In the sprinklered
experiments, tenability was maintained in the dorm room and the
corridor.

Experiments 4 and 5 were conducted with the
door of the dorm room open and no active sprinkler. In both experiments
the tenability limits were exceeded in the dorm room and corridor.

“This study demonstrated the value of balanced
fire safety design,” says NIST Fire Protection Engineer Dan
Madrzykowski. “The results show the potential life safety benefits of
smoke alarms, compartmentation and automatic fire sprinkler systems in
college dormitories and similar occupancies.”

The experiments also demonstrated the
importance of a closed door between the fire room and corridor in
limiting the spread of smoke and gasses to other areas of the building.

The studied was performed as part of the U.S.
Fire Administration’s initiative to improve fire safety in college
housing and in collaboration with the University of Arkansas and the
Fayetteville Fire Department.

Another series of experiment was conducted with
fires starting in a day room area open to the dormitory corridor. The
results of the two studies were published in “Impact of
Sprinklers on the Fire Hazard in Dormitories: Sleeping Room Fire
Experiments” (NIST Technical Note 1658, available at www.nist.gov/cgi-bin//get_pdf.cgi?pub_id=904640)
and “Impact
of Sprinklers on the Fire hazard in Dormitories: Day Room Fire
Experiments” (NISTIR 7120, available at www.nist.gov/cgi-bin//get_pdf.cgi?pub_id=101409.)

More information on the U.S. Fire
Administration’s College campus Fire Safety Program can be found at www.usfa.dhs.gov/citizens/college/.

Media Contact: Evelyn Brown, evelyn.brown@nist.gov, (301)
975-5661