Information I have found on another list.
>
>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)
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Member: Ohio Fire Officials Association.
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___________________________________________________