Fire plans revised

Five false fire alarms have occurred this school year because of a defective sensor on the third floor and unintentional alarms, causing evacuations that have drawn attention to Blair's new fire evacuation policy. The procedural changes have received mixed reviews from students and staff.

The new fire evacuation plan requires all students and staff members to report to the stadium. In previous years, both the stadium and the basketball courts served as evacuation sites.

The change was instituted after staff members voiced concern last year that having two evacuation sites was not the most effective evacuation plan. "Many teachers did not like last year's plan. Teachers feel more comfortable with all students being [in the same place]," said Safety Committee Chairman Mark Curran.

Accounting for students during fire drills has also been a concern and was one of the reasons why Blair's Safety Committee and Crisis Response Team changed the evacuation policy. The new plan allows staff members to better keep track of students when there is an alarm between classes or at lunch, according to Curran.

Sophomore Cie'Reonna Winston, a Safety Committee member, agrees. "It is easier for all students to go to the stadium if they are between classes, because there is no confusion about where they should evacuate to," she said.

Under the new plan, staff members also find it easier to locate missing students during an evacuation. The public address system used at the football games could help teachers locate students who are unaccounted for, said Curran.

Sophomore D.J. Brobby believes that the new plan guarantees the safety of all students. "If there is a fire, it is better to have all the students in one place so that [staff members] know where everyone is," he said.

One planned fire drill took place this year on Sept 19. The Safety Committee observed the evacuation and looked for weaknesses in the new policy. The evacuation took about seven minutes for all staff members and students––about one minute longer than most of the evacuations in previous years, said Curran.

In addition to the slower time, another problem observed during the drill was that many areas of the stadium were overcrowded, according to the Safety Committee. During the first evacuation, two classes were assigned by the Safety Committee to each row in the stadium. Because of the crowding, the seating chart was reorganized in October so that there is now only one class assigned to each row.

Many classes experienced problems evacuating to the stadium because of the overcrowding. "I couldn't fit all my students in the row I was assigned to," said English teacher Luke Henry.

Students who were unaware of the rows to which they were assigned added to the problem of overcrowding, according to Henry. "[The drills] have been chaotic because lots of students don't know where they have been assigned," he said.

Despite these difficulties, Curran believes that Blair is prepared in the event that there is a serious fire in the school.