Weather and fire can turn any event into a disastrous one, which is why Center for Campus Fire Safety puts on programs and classes every September teaching students and faculty safety tips and how to handle any emergency situation.
Campus Fire Safety seminars and classes are held at all four university locations. Classes take place Monday through Fridays and started on Sept. 1 and will continue until Sept. 29.
ASU Fire Marshall Jim Gibbs is the coordinator for the events and has been running Campus Fire Safety month for seven years.
Each year the information is tailored to fire prevention and safety, however, this year Gibbs wanted to address special events and weather safety because of the recent tragedy at the Indiana State Fair involving a stage collapse.
“We’re having a lot of different wind and weather conditions that have been happening in the United States,” Gibbs said. “We wanted to focus a lot of it on special event related stuff.”
Seven people died and at least 40 were injured during the Aug. 13 tragedy in Indiana. Gibbs hired Director of Quality, Safety and Compliance Ken Keberle from Karl’s Event Services to speak to four of the classes and make sure a similar event does not happen at ASU.
“Jim gave me the criteria of what he wanted to do as far as informing his staff what a safe installation is, what to look for and making sure (students) are taken care of in the best possible manner,” Keberle said. “There are fatalities that occur with tents and I want to make sure none of them happen here.”
Keberle said that ASU is the only university that has asked him to speak and he wrote the program custom tailored to ASU.
“The whole idea was made just for ASU,” Keberle said. “It’s the only time a university has asked for this type of information and (ASU’s) uniquely situated where (it) has more events than anybody.”
Assistant Director for Campus Recreation Chad Ellsworth handles a dozen campus events during a school year and attended a seminar to further educate his understanding of event safety.
“We do a lot of events that have either tents or inflatables and we want to make sure students are safe and that we’re doing things in the best interest of our students and those who are attending events,” Ellsworth said. “The more I can learn about this stuff the better.”
Gibbs said anybody wanting to participate in the seminars could contact him by email.
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