Fire & Life Safety

Alarm System

The University of Rhode Island Fire and Burglar Alarm Systems are under the management of the Alarms coordinator. The staff consists of four licensed technicians that respond to alarms and mechanical troubles on fire and burglar systems. Three work Monday through Friday 8:30am to 4:30pm and one works 7:00pm to 3:00am Wednesday through Sunday. There is also a technician on call at all times that is dispatched by the Campus Police when a problem arises with the alarm systems.

The buildings at URI have a fire alarm system that is tied directly to the Local Fire Department and/or the Campus Police Station as follows:

Kingston Campus - Tied into the Kingston Fire Department, South Kingston Police Station and the Campus Police Station through the municipal circuit.
Narragansett Bay Campus - Tied into the Narragansett Fire Department.
W. Alton Jones Campus - Tied to the Campus Police Station by telephone line.
The police dispatch the West Greenwich Fire Department.
Providence Campus- Tied into the Providence Fire Department.

The alarm staff maintains all fire and burglar systems and keep them in operating condition twenty four hours a day.

If a problem occurs with your fire or burglar alarm system you need to call the University Police at 874-2121 to have a technician dispatched to take care of the problem as soon as possible.

We work very hard at keeping the alarms operating properly and you can help us by keeping false alarms at a minimum. The Fire and Police Departments are here to keep us safe and we don't want to have them respond unless they are needed.

Fire Alarms

Each time a fire alarm sounds the fire department, a police officer, and an alarm technician are all dispatched to respond to the scene. However, fire alarms are all-too-often going off for non-serious reasons; 75% of our fire alarms on campus are false...

The following table shows ways false alarms are triggered and ways we can avoid them in the future. The flyer below is a visual representation of the information in the table, and can be clicked on and printed out to hang in dormitories.

Click to Enlarge and Print

Causes:		Suggestion:
Burnt food		If you are cooking in the dorms, stay and watch the food cook.
Aerosol Cans		Do not spray aerosol in your rooms because your smoke detectors think it is smoke. Use pump spray or solids and never spray near a smoke detector.
Shower Steam		If exhaust fans are not working, keep steam in the bathroom and tell someone who can fix it.

For Your Safety: Keep Fire Lanes Free So Our Fire Department Can Get To You Faster!

Burglar Alarms

At the present time we maintain over one hundred security systems on the main campus. A number of buildings and specific departments within buildings on the main campus have burglar alarm systems. The alarm systems that we install are state of the art, versatile, and monitored by the URI Police Station 24 hours a day.

Alarms and mechanical troubles are received by the Campus Police Station as soon as they occur. When a mechanical failure is received, they dispatch a technician to fix the problem. When an alarm signal is received, the police dispatch an officer to investigate the alarm. It is important to notify the police immediately if an alarm is set off accidentally to keep false alarm responses to a minimum.

Alarm systems are installed on a request basis and all components are paid out of the requesting departments funds. The systems are designed and material lists are prepared within the Department of Public Safety. The individual departments prepare the requisition to purchase the parts and materials which are then shipped directly to Public Safety. The labor for installation and maintenance of the system is supplied by alarm technicians of Public Safety at no cost to the department.

After installation we personalize your own security codes for your department and explain how to use it properly.

If your department is interested in having a security system installed you can call Public Safety at 874-2618 and we will put you in touch with someone to help you.