Fire can move quickly, especially in a cluttered dorm room. Creighton students were taught a valuable lesson Wednesday by the Omaha Fire Department.

The charred remains of a makeshift dormitory room, nothing left but ashes and the fire lasted only three minutes. It was a wake-up call for the resident adviser students who bear the responsibility of keeping others safe.

It looked like a typical dorm room complete with stale pizza, books and piles of clothes. "You do not want to breathe this so we do not want anybody near the smoke," said Omaha Fire Capt. Dave Poulicek.

"You could feel the heat," said Eric Casares.

"Every 30 seconds the fire will double in size so it doesn't take very long for that fire to get out of control," said Capt. Poulicek.

"Seeing and hearing about it is completely different,” said junior Da'keisha Granderson. “Just to actually see it. It expanded so fast."

Much like another campus fire did at Nebraska Wesleyan’s Phi Kappa Tau Fraternity House in November 2006. Investigators believe fireworks or tobacco products may have played a role in the blaze that killed 19-year-old Ryan Stewart.

Firefighters said then one thing would have made a big difference. “Had we had sprinklers in this structure to begin with we wouldn't be having this conversation."

Many Greek Houses at Creighton and across the country lack sprinklers due to their age, which makes firefighters jobs much tougher. Unlike this mock-up, most dorms do have sprinklers. "Smoke will kill faster than a fire," said Capt. Poulicek.

Since it takes firefighters an average of four minutes to get to a call, Capt. Poulicek tells the resident advisers first reactions are critical. "If there is a fire in any of these dorm rooms, please stress that they close the door. That confines that fire to that room."

Better yet, he said, take steps to prevent problems like keeping rooms tidy. "Watching the room and seeing all the cardboard everywhere, the shirts laid out everywhere and seeing those were the ones that really caught fire the fastest," said senior Marie Young.

After the demonstration, the RAs went through another four hours of training. They're also learning how to use fire extinguishers. All of Creighton's dorms have sprinklers except for Gallagher Hall. It's an older building that reps say won't be around much longer.

Nebraska Wesleyan has since raised $600,000 to get sprinklers installed in all their buildings and within the next few years, all the Greek Houses will be equipped as well through a loan program.