Though residents were evacuated safely, a fire late Sunday night at Morrill Tower has raised questions about the building’s alarm system.No one was injured in the blaze, but 1,000 residents were evacuated. The students stood on the lawn for about 20 minutes after they were evacuated just before 1 a.m. and most were back in their rooms by 2:30. The fire began sometime before midnight on the 5th floor of the building, said Lt. William Fitzpatrick of the Columbus Division of Fire.A smoke alarm went off in room 553, which automatically alerts the Columbus fire and police departments. Also, resident advisers on the affected floors are alerted of the situation by an alarm in their room, said Steve Kremer, director of residence life.When firefighters arrived at the scene a decision was made to alert all the building’s residents. However, alarms on half of the 20 residential floors didn’t go off because of the failure of the “all-call” alarm, said Al Schreiber, director of Morrill Tower.The “all-call” alarm is activated from the front desk of the tower if the fire department decides to evacuate the building. The failure of this alarm concerned some residents.Beth Koebel, a freshman majoring in international studies, was in the shower when her resident adviser knocked on her door and told her to get out of the building. “The fire alarms go off all the time in this building, and last night they didn’t go off,” she said. Rodney Traxler, the resident adviser of the 5th floor, said the alarm in his room went off around 11:50 p.m.Some floor’s fire alarms had to be triggered manually due to the failure of the building’s “all-call” alarm, Kremer said. Mike Lokie, a sophomore majoring in journalism, lived in the four-room suite where the fire occurred. Lokie said he was sitting at his desk with his girlfriend, sophomore Tiffany Parke, when he smelled something “strong, like a charcoal smell.”He and several suite mates determined the smoke was coming from the room adjacent to his, room 553.He said the resident of room 553 walked into the suite and opened the door to his room, which consists of a study area and separate bedroom. The two entered the study room along with Traxler, and the resident tried to open the door to the bedroom.”When he cracked the door it was instant black smoke,” Lokie said.At that point Traxler said he told the residents to “shut the door and get out.”Two other residents of the suite, Rob Altherr and Lester Lehman, helped evacuate the rest of the floor.Notifying other floors in the building wasn’t as easy because of the faulty “all-call” alarm.”The alarm went off on our floor because one of the residents pulled it, it did not go off because of the ‘all-call’ alarm,” said Anna Gibson, the resident adviser for the 17th floor. Firefighters arrived with 24 trucks at 11:54 p.m. Fitzpatrick said the fire “originated from a popcorn popper.””I heard there was a short in the electric,” Fitzpatrick said. “The evacuation went surprisingly well, considering it was in the middle of the night.” said Gibson.Students from suite 550 are staying at the Fawcett Center. Kremer estimates it will take two to three weeks to repair the damage.Mark DeVine, battalion chief of the Columbus Division of Fire, estimated the damage at $10,000.Though Kremer said the alarm technology in the dorm needs to be worked on, he stressed how well resident advisors and students handled the situation.”Students as a whole acted responsibly and evacuated the building in an orderly way.”
Jim Rothermal contributed to this story.
