The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 1 - 65

Residence Hall Inhabitants' Responses to Fire Alarms

Residence hall inhabitants at this university
are given handouts with ﬁre safety procedures,
residence hall ﬂoor meetings are held at the beginning of the academic year where verbal instructions regarding ﬁre procedures are given,
and ofﬁcial ﬁre drills are capped at two per year
per residence hall (Minnesota State University,
Mankato, 2014).

Materials and Procedure
To measure their knowledge of ﬁre safety, participants were asked ﬁve true/false questions,
such as, "In a ﬁre, you are more likely to die
from burns than from smoke inhalation."
They were also asked how many minutes
could elapse between hearing a ﬁre alarm to
when they were in real danger. (See Table 2
for a complete list of the knowledge questions
and response frequencies.) Additionally, participants reported whether they had ever failed
to evacuate in response to an alarm, as well as
their perception of how often ﬁre alarms in
their residence hall were false alarms. They
were also asked whether they were more or less
likely to exit their residence hall in response
to a ﬁre alarm when alone or in the presence

of others. Finally, participants responded to a
ﬁre alarm scenario, stating, "Imagine you are
walking down your hallway some afternoon
and suddenly an alarm sounds. You recognize
that the alarm is a ﬁre alarm. In the distance
you hear a voice giving instructions to a group
of residents on where to evacuate. What do you
do?" Participants indicated on a 5-point scale
how likely they were to engage in the following behaviors: Take time to survey the situation, join the group, try to ignore the alarm,
try to go back to my room, and try to exit immediately. In order to ensure the accuracy of
the questions and the scenario, and their relevance to potential residence hall ﬁres, the city
ﬁre marshal collaborated to develop the survey
(Bengston, 2011) and pilot tested it in a prior
survey of student ﬁre knowledge.
Participants accessed and completed the
survey online via the program Qualtrics,
which preserves conﬁdentiality, and earned
extra credit for completing the study. Informed consent and debrieﬁng were included
in the survey.

Table 2
Fire Knowledge Scale with Correct Answers and Participant Responses
Question

Correct
Answer

Number (%)
Answering True

In a ﬁre, you are more likely to die from burns than from smoke inhalation.

False

18 (8%)

Carbon monoxide is one of the biggest factors in ﬁre-related deaths.

True

137 (87%)

When inhaled, carbon dioxide is more deadly than carbon monoxide.

False

44 (26%)

A ﬁre is only dangerous once you begin to smell smoke.

False

9 (4%)

I am not at serious risk during a ﬁre because my dorm is made of concrete or brick.

False

9 (4%)

V O L U M E 4 3 , NO. 1 * 2 0 1 6

The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 43, No. 1

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