On Sunday evening, April 19, around 6:30 p.m., resident assistants of ARC Residential Hall returned to find haze and smoke in the air in the lobby on the first floor.
“When the police and fire department arrived, they found that an air handler unit had had an electrical malfunction in the storage closet, causing a small fire to have broken out,” said Josh Blakely, the Director of Residence Life with Residential and Commuter Life. The resident assistants followed protocol, which led to two building evacuations and no one was hurt.
“There was a lot of smoke everywhere. You could smell it heavily in your room. So, they had us evacuate the building because of it. Thank God that the firefighters and policemen were here to locate the issue because it could have been worse,” said Sherrale Lamb, a first floor resident of ARC.
There was not much damage done to the building itself. The damaged was just confined to the storage unit and no student belongings were impaired.
“It (the fire) was discovered very quickly and by the time the fire and police department got there, the fire was going out. It was a malfunction, and I don’t think there will be any further investigation,” said Blakely.
