Ball State Dorm Evacuated After Small Fire
Around 1,900 students fled a Ball State University dorm—the largest complex on campus—after a basement fire set off alarms at 4 a.m. Wednesday, the Daily News reports. Police do not suspect foul play, but the fire did cause a pipe burst, flooding hallways and classrooms near the fire. The 100 classes that used the building's basement have been relocated.
Students were moved to a nearby arena and were allowed back into their rooms at 8 a.m. For their troubles, they were offered free food, hot cocoa, and a free pass to coast in their classes the next day because the poor things "lost a lot of sleep in addition to the trauma they experienced," a university memo noted.
Tags: colleges | Ball State University
Tools: 
Share
|
| Comments (1) | Print
Reader Comments
Ball State dorm fire
Below is a letter that I have sent to campus police, Muncie police, Muncie fire dept., and Alan Hargrave Ball State University Associate Vice President for Student Affairs & Director of Housing and Residence Life
As a mother of a student living in LaFollette I was shocked when my high schooler came home from school talking about a fire at the college her brother attends. She was told of the fire by a friend who saw it on the early morning Chicago news. After contacting my son, what he told me was even more shocking.
While campus police were taking care of their top priority, the evacuation of the students, and additional police were called in to get these kids over to safety where the Red Cross took care of them for over four hours, my son and his roommate slept. Yes, slept! They did not wake up till their alarm clock went off at 10:00 a.m. My son got up, thought it was strange that the door to the room was open, took his shower, and went to class. Not till he heard others in class complaining about their lack of sleep that morning did he find out about the fire and evacuation. How does this happen? One believes their child is safe at school, sleeping in their dorm. Yet my son and his roommate were left sleeping in their room while two floors below them firemen were trying to put out a fire for almost two hours! Who opened the door to my son's room? Why didn't that person wake the boys up? I read in the newspaper that the RA's took attendance during the four hours the students were kept in the basketball arena. Why wasn't it noticed that at least two boys were missing? If they were so easily overlooked who's to say there weren't even more students left behind in the burning building. It deeply disturbs me to think of what may have happened had the fire and smoke continued to spread.
I hope this letter has made you aware of the severe lack of thoroughness in your evacuation protocol. I am confident that this will be rectified promptly to ensure the safety of all students in case of another emergency.
Sincerely,
Tina Stagowski
advertisement
