Burn demonstrations at Laurier teach students about fire safety

Thick black smoke could be seen from Hickory Street in Waterloo Tuesday night as Wilfrid Laurier University and Waterloo Fire Rescueheld two fire demonstrations at the university's Northdale campus parking lot.

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"The pretense behind all this is that we have 3,400 first year Laurierstudents," John Percy, public education officer for Waterloo Fire Rescue,told CBC News.

"What we are trying to demonstrate is how quickly a fire burns."

Fire crews builtrooms made of typical residential construction materials, filled it with bedroom furniture andplaced a working fire alarm inside for the room burn demonstration.

As it burned, fire crews talked about how quickly a fire can spread and the importance of having a working fire alarm and evacuation plan.

Crews also demonstrated what a kitchen fire looks like,in Waterloo Fire Rescue'skitchen fire trailer, and demonstrated how to properly extinguish a grease fire.