Firefighters in Dundee have been kept busy with supernoodle fires and popcorn steam as the freshers start university.
Since September 1 crew members from Tayside Fire and Rescue have been called out to 20 cases of detectors operating in students halls.
Four of those call-outs turned out to be due to fire safety equipment being maliciously targeted.
Jim Stark, white watch crew manager at Blackness Road fire station, sent a safety message to new students.
”We understand that mistakes can happen, but students need to listen to the advice they are given on how to cook and stay safe without setting off the alarms,” he said. ”More malicious incidents will not be tolerated.”
His words come after engines were called out to a microwave on fire in Seabraes Halls on Wednesday afternoon.
”It was supernoodles there,” he said. ”The girl had put them on and had gone away and left them.
“They had gone on fire. The detector in the kitchen is a heat detector, but she had the door to the hallway propped open so it set off the alarm.”
Two hours later the crew were called out after a bag of popcorn set off the alarm at Belmont Halls.
Mr Stark said: ”The student had taken it from the microwave to his room. He opened the bag right below the smoke detector.”
In each occasion the whole block had to be evacuated and firefighters took advantage of the captive audience to educate them.
Mr Stark said: ”Things like this happen all the time when the students arrive they are away from home and they’ve got to get used to the mechanisms put in place for their safety.
”The detectors in their rooms go off with hairspray or hair straighteners. We educate them so they don’t divert us from more serious incidents.”
However, he said there is also a malicious side to the call-outs where glass fire alarm covers have been broken deliberately.
”You also get the high jinks,” he said. ”We’ve had four of them since September 1.”
Tayside Fire and Rescue intend to carry out 120 home fire safety visits tonight to drive the message home.