Information from another list.

>Date: Mon, 08 May 2000 12:14:25 -0400
>From: Wayne Wood <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Dormitory Fire
>Organization: McGill University
>MIME-version: 1.0
>Priority: normal
>Precedence: bulk
>
>We recently had a dorm fire too, but it didn't make the local
>newspapers. Why?  Because the fire (caused by an unattended
>candle) was extinguished by the sprinkler system  - which we just
>finished installing 2 months ago.
>
>Wayne Wood
>McGill University
>Montreal
>
>
>Date sent:              Mon, 08 May 2000 11:44:07 -0400
>From:                   SAFETY approval account <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject:                [SAFETY] Dormitory Fire
>To:                     [log in to unmask]
>Send reply to:          Safety <[log in to unmask]>
>
>> From: "Michael D. Sauda, CSP" <[log in to unmask]>
>> Date: Mon, 8 May 2000 11:30:30 -0400
>> Subject: Dormitory Fire
>> Reply-to: [log in to unmask]
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> One of our campuses experienced a dormitory fire over the
>> weekend.  Attached is an excerpt from the Bangor Daily News.
>> (Can be viewed today only at www.bangornews.com)
>>
>> Fortunately, no one was seriously injured or killed.  However, the
>> memory of Seton Hall's tragedy weighs heavily in our minds.
>> Things could have been worse for us.
>>
>> Hope this information may be useful in resident and staff training as
>> well as emergency planning for temporary housing needs.
>>
>> Michael Sauda
>>
>> ----------------
>>
>> Fire at UMaine dormitory ruled arson
>>        By Michael O D. Moore, Of the NEWS  Staff
>>
>> ORONO   A fire was set early Sunday at a University of Maine
>> dormitory, sending five people to the hospital and displacing 240
>> students just a week before final exams, authorities said.
>>
>> Some residents of Hancock Hall complained that at least four false
>> alarms had occurred in the previous week and that the dorm s fire
>> alarms went silent five minutes after sounding Sunday.
>>
>> UM said the alarms, in a dorm that has no sprinklers, stopped because
>> of electrical damage.
>>
>> A visitor and four student residents of the dorm were treated for
>> smoke inhalation at Eastern Maine Medical Center, then released.
>> Their names were not released.
>>
>> Investigators determined Sunday afternoon that the fire began on the
>> first floor and was caused by arson, said Stephen McCausland,
>> spokesman for the state Department of Public Safety.
>>
>> Joe Carr, a university spokesman, said the building s electrical and
>> alarm systems were so damaged that students would not be allowed to
>> live there for the rest of the school year. A week of classes and a
>> week of final exams remain.
>>
>> Details about the fire, including how it was started, were not
>> available Sunday.
>>
>> Investigators and campus security officers began interviewing
>> students who lived on the basement, second and third floors of the
>> dorm as they were escorted into the building to retrieve their
>> belongings Sunday night, McCausland said.
>>
>> Students who lived on the first floor, the most heavily damaged part
>> of the building, were not allowed to return to their rooms Sunday
>> night, Carr said.
>>
>> Carr said the fire damaged wiring and caused charring and melting in
>> areas near the lounge. The rest of the building had smoke damage, he
>> said.
>>
>> The fire also damaged fire doors designed to keep fires from
>> spreading down hallways.   That s how hot it was. But they did their
>> job,   he said.
>>
>> Carr described the damage as   significant   and expressed concern
>> that the fire was set.
>>
>>   It s certainly frightening to think that someone would do that,   he said.
>>
>> The alarm sounded at 3:40 a.m., students said. As they left their
>> rooms, they encountered smoke-filled corridors.
>>
>>   It was very thick. We couldn t see, and it was hard to breathe,
>> said Sasha Deering, a 20-year-old freshman from Dexter who lives on
>> the first floor. She said she crouched to avoid the heavy smoke as
>> she left the building.
>>
>> It took firefighters 15 minutes to bring the blaze under control,
>> said Orono Fire Chief Lorin LeClerie.
>>
>> Speaking minutes after the fire had been extinguished, LeClerie said
>> students had been slow to leave the building. "We still have some
>> stragglers coming out of the building," said LeClerie.
>>
>> Hancock Hall residents, who were assembled at nearby Wells Conference
>> Center to be counted, said they had been desensitized after numerous
>> false alarms during the week.
>>
>> Aaron Beauregard, 19, a freshman from Rangeley, noted he had been
>> through four false alarms the previous week, including three
>> Thursday. Some students said they responded slowly until they learned
>> it was a true emergency.
>>
>> "I heard somebody yelling so I took it seriously," said George Earl,
>> 20, of Clinton, N.Y., a first-floor resident.
>>
>> Some students complained to fire officials that the alarms had not
>> worked properly. Carr said the fire alarms went silent about five
>> minutes into the fire because of electrical damage.
>>
>> He said the system did sound throughout the building and at the
>> university s public safety building.
>>
>> Fire codes have required sprinklers for dormitories built during the
>> last couple of decades, but the 1960s-vintage Hancock Hall has no
>> sprinkler system. Only three of UM's 17 dorms have sprinklers, Carr
>> said. Carr said retrofitting older buildings with sprinklers is
>> costly and there had been some talk in the Legislature this year
>> about the issue. "I don't think there's any question that the
>> university sees the value in it," Carr said.
>>
>> In January, a fire in New Jersey at a Seton Hall University dorm with
>> no sprinklers killed three students.
>>
>> At the University of Maine, the next concern is to minimize the
>> individual difficulties faced by the students who have been displaced
>> just a week before final exams begin, Carr said.
>>
>> On Sunday afternoon, Carr said, living arrangements had been made for
>> all 240 students. Some would live in quarters of students who dropped
>> out or left earlier in the school year, and some will live with
>> friends or nearby families, he said.
>>
>> The Red Cross distributed blankets, pillows and other essentials to
>> students Sunday afternoon, he said.
>>
>> The extent of the damage to students  belongings can t be assessed
>> until they are allowed to go back to the dorm to collect their
>> possessions, Carr said.
>> End Excerpt
>> Michael D. Sauda, CSP              [log in to unmask]
>> Occupational Hygienist             [log in to unmask] (alt)
>> University of Maine System
>>
>


___________________________________________________
Randall L. Hormann              [log in to unmask]
Miami University                6 Hughes Hall (EHSO)
Fire/Safety Specialist          Oxford, Ohio 45056
Fire Safety Inspector           Office: 513-529-2461
http://www.ehs.muohio.edu/      Fax:    513-529-2830
Page me Via  E-Mail:  [log in to unmask]

State:  Fire Safety Inspector - Instructor (Ohio)
Chair:  International Assoc. of Campus Fire Safety Officials
Member: Ohio Fire Chiefs Assoc., Fire Code Committee.
Member: Ohio Fire Officials Association.
Advisor:Sigma Alpha Epsilon - Fraternity.
Advisor:Alpha Lambda Delta/Phi Eta Sigma - National Honor Society.

___________________________________________________