Students in Straz Hall were evacuated last Sunday at the end of the third quarter of the Super Bowl after a smoke detector on the fourth floor triggered the alarm.
Resident Assistant Roman Dagesh left his stove on when he went on duty for approximately 30 minutes before returning to grab class materials.
‘I was basically boiling hotdogs,’ he said. ‘I thought I turned the stove off, but apparently I didn’t.’
Smoke was originally contained by the door, which hid the odor from neighboring rooms. There were no flames. As soon as it was released, Dagesh began acting on his RA training.
‘First I turned off the stove,’ he said, ‘then the fire alarm went off about a minute later.’
Krystal Schofield, Director of Reslife confirmed that this was not the first time an incident like this has happened but did not discuss the security of Dagesh’s position with anyone other than the RA.
Residential policy doesn’t explicitly state that students must turn off stoves before leaving the rooms, though the university’s Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) is purposely vague.
‘The EOP is not intended to be an all-inclusive, comprehensive set of directives but rather an organized series of guidelines that may be used in a variety of crisis management situations,’ the UT website states.
Some residents evacuated the building leaving their ovens and other appliances on thinking that there was no fire and the drill would end soon.
However, due to Martinez Gym and the Cass Building used as Super Bowl halftime staging locations, the fire engine and vent truck were delayed in arriving on scene. Students were advised by the RAs to finish watching the Super Bowl elsewhere.
‘About an hour after the fire marshals left, I went around to make sure there’s no smoke in their [the resident’s] rooms,’ Dagesh said, ‘and that they’d be able to sleep. Everything was fine.’
Despite the EOP, Schofield acknowledged that there are holes in the way it is written.
‘None of our policies are written specifically for these types of incidents,’ she said. ‘This is because these types of incidents are few and far between.’
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