University of Toronto Missisauga’s Davis Building and Recreation, Athletic and Wellness Centre were evacuated on February 16 after several 911 calls reported heavy smoke coming from the building’s ventilation system. Though the evacuation was successful, two weeks after the incident, most students still remain in the dark about the events of that afternoon.
While contractors were changing the air conditioning pipes at the Davis Building’s fifth floor mechanical room, the vent’s cork insulation caught fire, causing smoke to spread to some classrooms, the main lobby, and the cafeteria.
“Cutting torches were being used to cut the metal pipes in the room […] and knowing that they’re going to generate some heat and potentially [trigger] the alarm repeatedly, we asked the fire security company to disable the building’s alarms until the construction was finished,” explained UTM campus police services manager Len Paris, who was directly involved with the operation.
According to Al Hills, Mississauga fire department platoon chief, two pumpers, one aerial ladder truck, and a total of 17 firefighters were dispatched to the university at approximately 11:29 a.m., three and a half minutes after the first 911 call.
As the fire alarm was off at the time, students were told verbally to evacuate the building and take refuge at the nearby Student Centre.
“It took a long time to remove the smoke from the building [but] everything was done according to [the fire department’s] policies and procedures,” Hills reported.
Fourth-year History major Marcia Soto agreed that the university neglected to give enough information about the incident even though they ensured student safety.
“The Student Centre was packed more than usual and some people told me that it’s because of a fire from a chemical experiment in one of the labs,” she said.
“To this day I am not sure about what happened that afternoon. I didn’t receive any emails during and after the fact, and it was only through the university’s Twitter account that I got a rough idea of what was happening,” said Matt Arias, a third-year Political Science major and one of the first people to post a picture of the scene on Twitter.
When told that construction work caused the accident, Soto and Arias said they wished they had been notified beforehand.
“[UTM] should have at least warned us that there was construction in the building and let us know that it might pose as a fire hazard,” Soto said.
Arias added that “it would have been better if emails were sent informing students about the precautions that the university was taking to ensure [their] safety.”
But according to Paris, UTM holds regular fire drills and has over 80 fire wardens trained to execute fire safety procedures on campus.
To prevent any future accidents, he said that the university is implementing more safety measures.
“We recommended that the contractors use a saw when cutting pipes as it’s a much safer alternative to the torch, and to cut longer lengths of pipes on the roof where it’s not a hazard.”
After the smoke was removed from the building at exactly 1:38 p.m., the fire alarm system was restarted and a health inspector ensured that all food products were safe in the cafeteria.
No injuries or damages were sustained.
