Just remember when you go in to fight it that the reason they are being strict is because of several people who have died at other universities in recent months due to fires. It's kind of hard to argue against that when they bring it up, because it might not just be you that gets hurt if something does happen. They have to be responsible for the entire student body. Dorm fires are a MAJOR issue right now. If you think it's bad for you, think about how a set of deaths and several million dollars worth of lawsuits are to the university. Talk about BAD.

You're in Payne Hall, which was built with sprinklers (as opposed to retrofit) but it's hard to get away with the argument "but if something did happen the sprinklers would get it (and flood the entire dorm)". The one thing I would argue is that the punishment doesn't match the infraction, because you were not informed of the hazard and given a chance to fix it. That is assuming, of course, that you weren't informed by some legal document or policy letter and that you didn't refuse to fix it when you were asked to.