Chief Ken Fickett says his firefighters were called to Upton Hastings Hall at roughly 2:07 a.m., as students were being evacuated from the four-story dormitory.
The chief says the fire was determined to have started in a closet on the third floor, but was thankfully contained by the floor’s sprinkler system.
This latest incident comes a week after a fire on Monday, Sept. 25, in which a lithium battery from a vape pen was determined to have caused a fire in a trash can on the same floor of Upton Hastings Hall. No injuries were reported in either fire.
In that incident, 23 students were temporarily relocated.
In the latest incident, University of Southern Maine officials say 47 students from two floors are being temporarily relocated due to the damage from the fire sprinkler system, which activated immediately.
This week, there was no damage reported from the fire itself, though the cause is still being investigated.
“Details are still emerging,” wrote USM’s public affairs officer Dan Hartill. “For now, our focus is on the wellbeing of our students.”
