Students living in dorms on the ISU campus are no strangers to the disruptions of fire alarms.

Last year alone, units from the Ames Fire Department responded to a total of 218 false fire alarms within buildings owned by the university.

“When we respond to an automatic alarm it puts us out, we’re responding emergent,” said Richard Higgins, deputy fire chief for the Ames Fire Department. “We do so very safely, but at the same time, it could take us away from another call.”

The alarm systems can be set off by any number of issues besides an actual fire emergency. Some of these include steam rising from showers or boiling water, smoke from cooking on a stovetop, food burning in a microwave, weather conditions such as lightning strikes or water leaks or simple system malfunction.

In the past few years, the Ames Fire Department has altered its response procedure to automatic alarms due to their high frequency. While the department once customarily dispatched three units to any automatic alarm, the number has since been reduced to only one.

“We can then upgrade that call based off secondary information,” Higgins said. “If it is a fire, we usually get multiple alarms and multiple phone calls, something to indicate that it’s just not a regular automatic alarm.”

Of the 218 calls to campus that the department responded to last year, seventeen of them were ones of malicious or mischievous intent. 

“For example someone grabs a fire extinguisher and discharges it down a hallway and of course that sets off the fire alarm system,” Higgins said.

There are a few things Higgins says people can do to avoid unnecessary alarms being triggered.

“Work with the design of the building, don’t place them near restrooms where you could have steam. Keep them away from the main entry doors where you could have people outside smoking or exhaust coming into a building,” Higgins said.

The system itself is just as important as its surroundings.

“Be proactive on the maintenance of detectors, test the systems on a regular basis and new detectors where you can adjust the sensitivity, so if someone has a little burnt toast it won’t set off the alarms,” Higgins said.

False alarms can cause serious problems for people in actual emergencies if trained personnel are occupied with an automatic call instead of their situation.

Residents of the dorms and student housing are urged to mind the fire response systems in their buildings.