An early morning fire was extinguished when sprinkler heads were activated in the linen area of a kitchen at Eastern Washington University. The alarm came in at 0405. The first unit on scene arrived to the sprinkler gong sounding on the outside of the building. Upon entry to the building the remnants of a linen fire was found on the second floor at the rear of the kitchen. Fire was out upon arrival. The final cause is still under investigation.
Category Archives: College/University (on campus)
Atlanta, GA – Fire sprinkler system puts out fire at Morris Brown College office
A weekend fire damaged Morris Brown College’s administrative offices, its interim president said.
Atlanta Fire Rescue Department officials got a call about a structure fire on the campus at about 6:15 a.m. Saturday, according to an incident report the department gave The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday. Firefighters found a small trash fire that reached the president’s desk. The sprinkler system put out the fire, the report said. The cause of the fire was not determined and is under investigation, said Atlanta Fire Rescue Sgt. Cortez Stafford.
Kevin E. James, the college’s interim president, shared a photo on social media showing a charred chair, desk and burned papers strewn across the office. James said in a video posted later Saturday that the water damage destroyed his office and other parts of the administration building were flooded. He asked alumni to donate.
“We need to raise $100,000 to get the water out of our building,” James, who said he was in Florida meeting with alumni, said in the video.
The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools revoked Morris Brown’s accreditation in 2002 after ballooning debt. Because Morris Brown is not accredited, students are not able to receive federal loans. James said in March the college had 42 students.
James began a fundraising campaign in March as part of an effort to regain its accreditation, which it is pursuing through the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools. James said the college raised $85,000 since March 1 and set a goal of raising $5 million in six months.
Morris Brown, founded in 1881, was the first historically black college and university in Georgia founded by African Americans.
Urbana, IL – Fire at campus restaurant held in check by sprinkler system; No injuries reported
Princeton, NJ – Overnight fire at Princeton University extinguished by sprinkler system
Vancouver, BC, Canada – Arson fire in college classroom building is put out with help from sprinkler system
Saginaw, MI – Fire at university extinguished by sprinkler system; No injuries reported
New Haven, CT – Overnight fire in university residence hall contained with help from sprinkler system
New York, NY – Overnight fire in college residence hall extinguished by sprinkler system; Fire started in trash compactor room
Dadario and other residents reported seeing and smelling smoke coming from the trash chutes on the first floor. The fire appears to have originated in the compactor room, though the cause is still officially unknown.
The sprinkler system was able to extinguish the fire before it could spread, though some areas, including student’s rooms, near the area flooded in the process. Luckily, the sprinklers in the trash rooms are independent of the rest of the system for this very purpose. This specialization meant there was significantly less damage than the incident in October, where sprinkler systems were triggered in several rooms.
Meanwhile, the crowd of residents outside was growing cold and restless. In the rush to evacuate, many were unable to put on clothes appropriate for the freezing weather. Some had nothing more than light pajamas. Others were in flip-flops, lacking socks to protect themselves against the cold.
Public Safety directed everyone to take refuge in the cafés of the research buildings, anticipating a long wait for the fire department and RAs to handle the situation inside. After some time, those residents were falsely told that the doors were open and they could return to their rooms. The crowd then gathered just outside the doors until they were allowed in, nearly an hour after the evacuation began.
Inside the building, the elevators were out of order and residents took the stairs to their rooms in the 10-story dormitory. Eventually, the majority of residents were back in their rooms, and the RA team was helping those who were locked out. The bulk of the crisis was over for the night, while worries linger for those impacted by the flooding.
Madison, WI – Overnight fire at University of Wisconsin extinguished by sprinkler system
Palo Alto, CA – Sprinkler system activated in fire at Stanford residential building
Note: On January 19, 2000, a fire in a dormitory at Seton Hall University tragically took the lives of three students and injured many more. The residence hall did not have a sprinkler system.
At around 7:00 p.m. on Sunday night, some residents of Studio 1 at the Escondido Village residential complex were evacuated after a cooking fire contained to one apartment set off a sprinkler. A Studio 1 resident said that she and a group of other residents were not permitted to re-enter their complex for one hour and 20 minutes, and stayed at the nearby Community Graduate Center instead. At approximately 8:20 p.m., the alarms stopped ringing and students and visitors began to re-enter the complex, the resident said. The Palo Alto Fire Department had no additional information to offer as of Monday evening.
