Students in Sansom Place East shuffle out of their rooms in slippers and pajamas, yawning as they head down the fire exits and congregate outside the doors to their building, waiting to come inside after yet another fire alarm.
The scene is not an unusual one for residents of the building, located at 36th and Chestnut streets, which houses graduate students.
For the past several months, these students have been experiencing an escalation in fire alarms -- some students and staff have reported as many as two to three alarms per week, though they also note recent improvement.
"There haven't been any in the past few weeks," Sansom Place East Senior Resident and third-year Dental School student Neil Vadecha said. "It's gotten a lot better. Before that, there were probably two, maybe three. In the past couple of weeks, and the last month even, I haven't noticed any."
Students said that they noticed that there is generally a series of alarms within several days, instead of isolated incidents of them.
"A few weekends ago, I think there were three or four, which is annoying if you're a law student studying for exams," first-year law student Matthew Foley said.
During fire alarms, students are required to exit the building and wait until both University facilities and Fire Department officials have checked to make sure that there is no serious safety threat.
Both students and staff members said that the alarms generally last from 10 to 15 minutes.
According to Vadecha, most of the alarms were caused by a legitimate fire situation.
"Some of them have been caused by people cooking and opening the doors and that causes the fire alarms in the hallways to go off," Vadecha said. "The other ones -- they don't give reasons sometimes -- so I'm not sure. The alarms are pretty sensitive and that's usually what causes the problems."
Senior Resident and second-year Law School student Albert Sanders said that he does not believe the escalation in fire alarms has been a result of a faulty system.
"In most cases, the alarms are caused not by malfunction, but by an actual event triggering the alarms," Sanders said.
Director of Fire and emergency Services Ted Bateman noted that after tests of the fire alarm system, it seems to be in working order.
"Everything we've been told as it relates to the reliability of the system is that the system's reliable and that it's functioning the way it's designed to," he said.
Vice President for Facilities and Real Estate Services Omar Blaik said that he was unaware of the problem, which led him to believe that the situation was not a serious one.
"I am certain they are not real fire alarms because that would've been reported to me," Blaik said. "In all likelihood, they were false alarms."
But whatever their cause is, students have said that their lives have been disrupted because of the repeated alarms -- especially those that sound off in the early mornings.
"Being woken up at 4 a.m., 5 a.m. on a Sunday morning is never pleasant," Foley said.
In fact, from Nov. 27 through Dec. 3, six alarms have been sounded -- five of which were between the hours of 3 am and 9 am.
Sanders concurred that the alarms have taken a bite into the daily routines of residents, but he also said that the alarms are a necessary evil at worst.
"They may at times cause an inconvenience in people's day, but what is most important is that residents are safe," Sanders said.
However, some students said they are concerned that the frequency of the alarms has desensitized residents to the risk of a fire -- they have noticed that many students stay in their rooms rather than following the fire alarm procedure.
"When I do go, there's seriously no one in the staircase," first-year law student Alvina Lo said. "It's dangerous because people don't take it seriously."
To address the issue of fire alarms and fire safety, University's Fire and Emergency Services Department representatives Bateman and John Cook met last night with residents in the lobby of Sansom East.
