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| Residents in one building of the Residential Suites were evacuated on July 14 after a grease fire broke out. |
Residents in one building of the Residential Suites were evacuated on July 14 when a grease fire broke out in a four-person unit. One student received second degree burns on his hands; no other injuries were reported.
At approx 6:30 p.m. Wednesday evening, a fire broke out in a unit where a student who was cooking apparently added water to the smoking food. The student sustained injuries, but the other three students in the unit at the time were not injured. All students in the complex were immediately evacuated.
The injured student was given medical treatment onsite. He was able to help move some of his belongings from his suite and, along with his three roommates, was relocated to another suite in the complex.
Automatic fire sprinklers quickly put out the fire, but the unit where the fire occurred, as well as six other units, received water damage at varying degrees. Four of the six units were not occupied by residents, and students in the remaining two units were temporarily relocated to other suites. The fire, smoke and water damage in the building is being assessed by the university at this time.
“The response of the University Police and University Housing staff was really phenomenal,” says Doug Freer, associate vice president for Student Affairs Administration. “The situation could have been a lot worse had they not assessed it as quickly as they did and get to the water mains,” he says, referring to the enormous amount of water and pressure that is passed through the fire sprinklers.
“It's really a credit to their training and their dedication. And even 10 more minutes of that water turning on, we'd have been looking at even more significant water damage.”