Despite concerns from students and other universities, UK fire officials will once again be placing a fog machine in dormitories for smoke-out fire drills, according to a Kernel article on Sept. 15.

This editorial board has never questioned the desire for improvements in student safety, especially when it comes to fire safety in dorms and campus buildings. But the continued use of smoke for fire drills still seems incomprehensible despite its intended purpose.

The purpose, as UK Assistant Fire Marshal Greg Williamson said in a Kernel article on Sept. 17, 2007, is to make fire drills more realistic. It forces both the students and firefighters to treat the drill like a real fire.

The concept is a novel idea. But ultimately the ends don’t justify the means. The smoke needs to be put out.

Using smoke for fire drills can cause a number of negative consequences. First and foremost, it can become a health risk for students breathing the air, especially those with asthma.

Smoke can also create a visibility issue. Students unable to see might run into objects, trip over something or even fall down stairs. While probably few and far between, injuries are certainly prone to happen without proper vision.

And finally, smoke will usually create an unneeded sense of panic. Those unaware of the fire drill will likely become scared by the presence of smoke in their dorm rooms, which usually creates unintended results. Students who usually do one thing will often do another when a sense of hysteria sets in.

“These drills are a great opportunity to show students how they might react in a real situation and make them think about whether or not their reactions were safe,” Williamson said in the Kernel article on Sept. 15.

How else are they supposed to react? Any dangerous situation, especially one that involves smoke and fire, is going to create panic. Just because you make students aware of their reactions doesn’t mean they’re not going to panic if an actual fire does occur.

And if showing students their reactions is really one of the main intentions of the UK fire officials, there have to be other alternatives than using smoke.

Here are some things we suggest UK fire officials do:

– Keep sending the firefighters to the drills. Their presence alone should create some sense of urgency for the students.

– Set up a reward/punishment program for each dorm. Students should be rewarded for their ability to exit the dorm in an orderly, yet quick and safe fashion. Those dorms that don’t meet the fire officials’ standards should be made to do it again. Pull a fire alarm and run a drill in the middle of the night to get the point across — short of smoke, do whatever it takes to get a proper evacuation going.

– Keep the fire drills unannounced. Students often know the drills are coming and take them nonchalantly anyway. Sarah Pierce, a pre-physical therapy junior, said in the Kernel article on Sept. 15 that students were expecting the drill. “People were still going down the smoke-filled stairway, so the drill was pretty pointless,” Pierce said.

Getting rid of the smoke will undoubtedly take the “real fire” experience out of the equation. But it’s a move that should be done. Compromising the health and safety of students for a fire drill is too much to ask for, especially when there are safer alternatives available to improving fire safety.