The popping sounds from a microwave can lead to more than exploding popcorn kernels. The heat applied to the bag through the microwaves can cause it to ignite, sending black, potent clouds of smoke through the air and causing a high-pitched alarm throughout the dorm.

“The most common residence hall calls we get are cooking. Wolf Village, ES King Village, even in the regular dormitories, people microwaving popcorn, or people boiling water is what we get calls about,” Micheal Thomas, a state deputy fire marshal, said.

“I think in Wolf Village Building-D they even have a microwave somebody had burnt the hell out of on display for a fire safety message.”

But even with the burning popcorn and flaming water, on-campus University facilities have stayed incredibly safe.

North Carolina is rated second nationally in fire fatalities but there has never been a fatality on State soil, according to Bill Stevenson, the state fire marshal. Stevenson attributes this to the precautions his team takes to prevent fires.

“It is because of the inspections and the programs we have in place,” he said. “On campus you are required to report any fire. Even if you burn a bag of popcorn and it does not set off the fire alarm, you still need to tell us so we can check it out and write up a report.”

The most common fires on campus are cooking fires, which are classified as Class A or B fires, depending on what is ablaze.

There are five different types of fires, according to National Fire Protection Agency.

Class A fires include ordinary combustibles, like paper. Class B fires include flammable liquids, such as oil. Class C fires ignite from energized electronics, such as a microwave. Class D is made from combustible metals, such as sodium. And Class K fires involve commercial amounts of cooking oils.

Each of these types of fire needs different extinguishers. Water will only work on Class A fires.

“The extinguishers on campus are A,B,C multi-purpose dry chemical extinguishers and they are effective on all three of those fires,” Thomas said. “We do have carbon dioxide extinguishers that are effective on B and C fires. You will find those in labs mostly, and specific applications for Class D extinguishers. You will find them very rarely on campus.”

The only way to extinguish a combustible metal fire is to seal out the oxygen to the source, so a combustible metal extinguisher forms a cake over it, according to Thomas.

“It only shoots about six to 12 inches. It would surprise the heck out of you,” he said.

Fires need three elements in order to occur: fuel, oxygen and heat. Take any of these three away and the fire will cease.

Fires also have a fourth quality called a chemical chain reaction.

“That is how multipurpose A,B,C extinguishers work, they break the chemical reaction,” Thomas said. “The bonds form through pyrolysis, which is when the product heats [and] it releases gases which are flammable and that burn. And you can burn anything. If you ground up steal small enough it will burn.”

Stevenson and Thomas are quick to warn people against using extinguishers if they are not comfortable. If there is any doubt in a person’s mind about their ability to deal with a fire, then they should leave the area immediately. Especially on campus, because of the extensive sprinkler system.

“We are one of the first schools in the UNC system to be fully sprinklered in the residence hall,” Stevenson said.

Thomas pointed out that people have misconceptions about sprinkler heads from movies where one sprinkler activates and then it is a sudden downpour. But that is not the case.

There are two main kinds of sprinkler heads, a frangible bulb and a fusible element.

Frangible bulbs are the ones used in residence halls, and they work by having water under constant pressure with a glass rod breaking at a certain temperature. Water only breaks through the activated sprinkler — it is not a chain reaction.

“Heat is what activates these, but sometimes because these are glass bulbs people will knock it, hit it, kick it, hang a clothes hanger from it; it’s not real smart,” Thomas said. “And the water in those pipes is not clean, it is old. All we have to do is smell you to know who did it. It is a rank oder.”

Smoke alarms are also abundant on campus. These systems are monitored by a central station. The fire marshals know anything that happens to the detectors, whether they are activated or removed, because they go into a trouble signal.

“It happens when people remove the detectors in their rooms to smoke, but then that signal comes to the dispatch center and five minutes later — not even five minutes later — somebody is at your room checking it out,” he said. “The systems we [use] on campus [are] pretty sophisticated.”

Housing is now testing a new precautionary device in Alexander Residence Hall, called a Safe-T Element. It is a device that is put on a regular store that will not allow the burner to reach over 662 degrees, according to Stevenson.

“You can heat up any food up enough to kill any bacteria. You can boil water with a piece of paper between the burner and the pot and never burn the paper,” Stevenson said.

“It is a very unique device that has four covers and a regulator that goes in the back on the stove. And not only is it really, really safe, but it saves energy which translates into you saving money. It’s one of the best things I have seen in a long time, and I applaud the housing folks on the back because they have a lot of responsibility.”