The Boston College campus rests in the jurisdiction of two fire departments, Boston and Newton. As such, our programs are designed to meet the varied requirements of both.

In 2003, Boston College’s EH&S office and Facilities Management sponsored two Fire Safety Forums at Boston College. The first was with City of Boston Fire Commissioner Paul Christian and members of his staff. The second was with Newton Fire Department and Fire Chief Joseph LaCroix. There was a full spectrum of representation from departments at BC, including the President’s office, Police, Capital Projects Management, Public Affairs, Facilities Management, Residential Life, Athletics, Community Affairs, and others. Thomas Devine, Vice President of Facilities Management, pledged his future support to fire safety initiatives and discussed past successes, challenges, and the cooperative nature in which we have all worked towards the end result of improved fire safety.

Fire Safety Forum Photo

Fire Safety Officer

Areas of responsibility for the Fire Safety Officer include:

Environmental Health and Safety, Residential Life Fire Safety Committee

This committee is a cooperative effort between Environmental Health & Safety, Residential Life, Facilities Services, Student Affairs, and the Boston College Police Department. The committee determined that smoking in dorm rooms was an unacceptable fire hazard and therefore implemented a smoking ban in all BC buildings effective September 2003. For complete information on the smoking policy, please refer to this section of the BC Handbook.

Fire Drills

The EH&S office works with the Residential Life staff, students, and the local fire departments to provide fire drills twice each year in each of the residence halls. These drills are conducted as early as possible at the beginning of each semester. Fire drills are also conducted on a quarterly basis at the Campus School and on a monthly basis at the Child Care Center.

Welding Permits

Prior to obtaining permits for cutting, welding, or any other hot work on campus from the City of Boston or Newton, a contractor must obtain an Application for Cutting and Welding with Portable Gas or Arc Equipment from the Boston College Fire Safety Office, located at St. Clement's Hall, Room 213. This application form must be completed and signed in person at the Fire Safety Office. The Cities of Boston and Newton will not grant a permit for this type of work without the application form from the BC Fire Safety Office.

Holiday Decorations

Christmas or other decorative lighting is permitted only from October 15 to January 15. Only UL-approved miniature lights are allowed. Lights may be lit only while students are present in their rooms. Contact with drapes, bedding, or other combustibles must be avoided.

Holiday decorations are not permitted on outside room doors or in hallways. Live trees or wreaths are not permitted within residence halls or in places of assembly at any time. Only certified fire-retardant artificial trees and wreaths are allowed.

Emergency Evacuation Plans

Written plans that are compliant with Occupational Safety and Health Organization (OSHA) regulations have been developed for all facilities at Boston College. These plans are available in the Safety Contacts office for each department in academic buildings. Plans are also available in the Residential Hall Director’s office. In residential buildings, floor plans showing a means of egress can be found on the exit doors leading from each residential space.

If you are a department head or a Building Safety Contact, you will have permission to enter the folder for your building. Only department heads and Building Safety Contacts have access to these folders. For academic buildings, departments have access to an EEP for just their floor, as well as an EEP for the entire building.

To obtain your building’s Emergency Evacuation Plan, click on the link below:

Emergency Evacuation Plans on MyFiles

You will be prompted to enter your BC username and password. You will then be taken to a page on MyFiles with the folder or folders to which you have access. Click on a folder. You will be taken to a page where you can either view the EEP or download it.

Alternatively, you can:

1. Log onto your MyFiles account the normal way at www.bc.edu/myfiles.
2. Click on the “Go to” button.
3. Type “bcfolders/ehsevacplans” into the prompt.
4. Click “Go”, and you will be brought to the EEP folder or folders to which you have access.

All EEPs are in PDF format. Your computer will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view them. You can download it for free from BC at http://www.bc.edu/software.

Please inform Environmental Health & Safety when contact information changes, such as when positions turn over and a Building Safety Contact leaves Boston College. Please email new contact information to Fire Safety Officer Don Wood at wooddf@bc.edu.

Any corrections or updates to the EEPs are also welcomed. Please print out the EEP, make necessary changes, and send the pages to Don Wood for review. The address is:

Donald Wood
Office of Environmental Health & Safety
St. Clement’s Hall
140 Commonwealth Ave
Chestnut Hill, MA 02467-3862

Fire Safety Awareness Week