The University has recorded 590 false calls and false alarms this year alone, a drop from last year’s 635, according to University Fire Marshal Bill Stevenson.

Capt. Jon Barnwell of Campus Police said 90 percent of false alarms are accidental due to technician work as well as construction vibration or dust.

“It’s important to minimize false alarms particularly in our common use buildings and our residence halls, because you’re false conditioning occupants,” Barnwell said.

Stevenson said 10 percent of the time, students are responsible for the sounding of false alarms.

“We’re far more fortunate than other campuses. We don’t have as many [false alarms] as some other campuses have. A lot of our students realize it’s serious business, and they don’t play with it,” Stevenson said.

According to Barnwell, the last real fire that occurred on campus was due to a student not abiding by the “no candle” policy of University Housing.

Student Body President Bobby Mills said one solution to pulled alarms is surveillance.

“As far as preventing the number of false fire alarms, I think [surveillance] is very important — security is a liberty,” Mills, a junior in political science and economics said.

Barry Olson, associate director for University Housing Facilities, said there are mechanisms in place to prevent people from pulling fire alarms. The stopper emits a piercing noise when an alarm cover is disturbed to scare off mischief, Olson said.

Olson also mentioned that at some locations, surveillance is a method of capturing pullers of fire alarms. Hair sprays and cooking are typically the cause of a student setting off a fire alarm unintentionally.

Mills said if more people were educated on dangers and repercussions, they would not pull fire alarms.

“When you cry wolf so many times [and] no one gets out [of a building], that’s a safety issue,” Mills said.

According to Barnwell, the University has some of the lowest intentional incidents among universities in North Carolina because of the maturity of the student body. In the cases where alarms are tripped intentionally, alcohol is usually involved, he said.

“One thing I’m proud to say is that our fire protection division and the Raleigh Fire Department treat everyone all the time as though it is the real thing. It’s not jeopardizing anybody’s safety,” Barnwell said.

Stevenson said the University owes its lack of fire-related fatalities to its zero tolerance policy with students, faculty and staff.

“We recognize for the most part that the students are pretty responsive. We recognize that, and we appreciate that,” Stevenson said. “I’m pretty proud to say that we don’t have the same issues that other schools have.”