General
Assign responsibilities for unoccupied areas of your building to an individual to ensure that they are properly shut down and precautions are in place to protect the facility, provide reasonable assurances for fire safety, and ensure the facility is locked. Examples of areas that may be overlooked are:
- Classrooms,
- Conference rooms,
- Visiting personnel offices,
- Kitchen and break areas,
- Warehouses/storage areas,
- Stairwells, and
- External storage areas.
Consider the following when you are beginning to close down your areas for the holidays.
Fire Safety
- Perform an inspection of your area and clear spaces of clutter, papers, and materials that may fuel a fire.
- Unplug holiday decorations.
- Turn off and unplug coffee pots.
- Extinguish all flames, such as candles.
- Properly store any highly flammable items in an approved flammable storage locker (for example, aerosols, sprays, thinners, paints, etc.).
- Remove any flammable chemicals and store them in an approved chemical storage locker.
- Close all doorsas a containment measure in the event of fire.
Energy Conservation Measures
- Turn off all lights.
- Turn off all radios.
- Turn off computers and printers.
- Reduce the thermostat to 40 degrees.
- Turn off any fans, space heaters, lamps, or other energy-consuming devices.
- Ensure that shop/lab exterior doors are closed and secured.
- Check and report any broken windows to facilities management (325-2005).
Custodial and Cleanliness
- Transport holiday food home or place in appropriate garbage dumpsters.
- Remove all foods,such as milk products, egg nog, left overs, etc., from the refrigerator.
- Ensure that trash is emptied.
Protection of Facilities
- Close all windows and exterior doors.
- Notify facilities management (325-2005) of storm drain issues.
- Notify facilities management of unprotected water pipes, interior or exterior.
- Notify facilities management (of dripping faucets, running toilets, or other plumbing issues.
- Notify facilities management of facilities issues that need immediate attention.
Faculty Housing
- Visit the faculty housing web site and review the Winter Weather Preparation posting.
- Notify faculty housing management if you are going to be out of town during the holidays or get a friend or neighbor to look after your unit in the event of very cold or severe weather.
- Verify that utility room heaters are working and properly set.
- Notify facilities management of any open crawl spaces.
Interior Plants
- Consider taking home office plants.
Report any facilities issues to 325-2005 during normal hours and to the University Police Dept. after normal hours at 325-2121.