Residents decorate for trick-or-treaters

by Jenny Wilkins
THE POST

In anticipation of trick-or-treaters who roamed East Green residence halls last night, some Ohio University students decorated their corridors with spider webs and orange and black streamers.

But before Athens children could see the decorations, Perkins Hall residents had to take them down.

After winning a pizza party from their hall council for creating the best Halloween display, residents on the first floor of Perkins Hall were told to remove the decorations for fire safety reasons.

"We are just upset because we put in all this effort and money into it, and we wish we would have known the rules beforehand so we did not have to waste our time," OU freshman Dan Rye said. "We even got approval with maintenance before we even started decorating, because we did not want them to think they had to clean up after us."

But OU Fire Marshall David Smith visited Perkins Monday and found that the decorations violated fire safety rules.

"The wall coverings were over the 25 percent rule that we use," Smith said. No more than 25 percent of the walls in residence halls can be covered by posters or fliers. This precaution is enforced to reduce any fire hazard.

Smith said the students also used plastic, which is toxic, and organic materials such as wood and leaves that are not allowed to be hung on walls. The location of the decorations also posed a hazard for students who would need to exit the building in the case of a fire.

"We try to work with residence halls when they want to have a function like this," Smith said.

Residents from all floors of Perkins have taken down their decorations.

"We decorated this for the kids and the spirit of Halloween. Now no one can experience it," OU freshman Chris Warrell said. "It is very upsetting to us because so many people were involved with the activity, and we all had a blast doing it."

••- Jessica Bartlett contributed to this story••