Students who live in Ball State University residence halls are used to fire alarms going off in the middle of the night.
They are not used to their buildings actually being on fire, though.
So when flames erupted in a break room in the basement of LaFollette Complex about 4 a.m. Wednesday, the speed in which students evacuated the building was relatively fast.
In about a half an hour, about 1,900 students were out of the building, accounted for and moved to Worthen Arena. That's fast, especially considering these students were asleep when the fire began.
Ball State and emergency officials were organized and efficient. The alarm system that tipped people off to the fire, however, was not.
Because the blaze started in a part of the building where smoke detectors are not required, an alarm had to be manually pulled to alert residents to the danger.
That's right, a building that houses about one-third of all Ball State students on campus has an area that is free of vital safety equipment.
The break room where the fire began not only houses a stove, but it is also beneath hundreds of students' beds. Heat rises.
No area should be exempt from requiring smoke detectors when the safety of people is at stake.
According to a fire department investigator, buildings have to be up to fire codes by law only in the year they are built. LaFollette was built in 1967.
Alan Hargrave, director of housing and residence life, said the complex's last alarm upgrades weren't more than 40 years ago, though. They were about seven or eight years ago.
Seems a little off, doesn't it? Surely after this incident university officials are considering some immediate improvements, though, right?
Not according to university representative Kevin Kenyon, associate vice president of facilities planning and management, who said updates to alarm equipment would be financially unwise because the university plans to demolish LaFollette Complex within a few years.
Ball State has been talking about LaFollette's destruction for more years than even the most super seniors can recall. The building likely isn't coming down anytime soon if the past is any indication.
Let's just cross our fingers that nothing else catches on fire before a new hall is built.
Even if the complex is demolished next summer, that is still not a good enough excuse to deny students this most fundamental protection.
When students are required to live in the residence halls as freshmen, they place a certain amount of trust in the university when it comes to living arrangements. They trust that food will be available, that the building won't collapse on them and that their rooms aren't going to catch on fire.
The university ought to do everything possible to guarantee students those basic rights.
Cost effectiveness is not the priority when it comes to student safety, especially when the university has spent thousands of dollars on measures many students feel are unimportant, like smoking areas that cost about $20,000.
One student was treated for smoke inhalation in this incident; students were lucky that was the extent of injuries.
As long as the university continues to avoid updating alarms, it runs risk of further damage and harm if another fire should occur.
Ball State does not see the lack of an up-to-date alarm system as much of a risk.
Students who live in halls without those alarms probably disagree.
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