Last Tuesday, the Brookside Fire Company arrived on campus to deal with reports of a dorm room fire in Niagara Hall.

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Police Services got the call at 9:29 p.m. and were cleared by 11:13 p.m. No injuries were reported, and the damage was primarily contained to the dorm room, although the sprinkler system was activated, extinguishing the fire.

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A desk and desk chair took the majority of the damage, for the fire is said to have started in a wastebasket under the desk. Other than minimal damage from smoke and water, the building was not excessively damaged. The Brookside Fire Company used fans to air out the building and residents were admitted back to their rooms the same night.

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“The smoke alarm went off and a student walking by smelled smoke and pulled the fire alarm,” said Police Services Lieutenant Jim Amann. The resident halls on campus conduct practice fire drills throughout the school year to prepare for issues like this.

According to Amann, the Fire Chief from Brookside Fire Company says it appears the fire was caused by lithium batteries in a plastic wastebasket under the desk. This bolsters the reasoning behind certain residence hall regulations, including no candles or other flammable objects permitted in the halls.

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“I would consider this an accident,” says Amann. If a fire started in a residence hall due to smoking, a candle or some other banned material, there could be consequences.

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Fortunately for Behrend, the fire was not sizable and did not cause significant damage, especially in comparison to the fire at Dobbins Dining Hall in 2010, after which the Dobbins Gazebo was destroyed.

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Student safety in the residence halls is the number one priority for Residence Life. Each residence hall has assigned Resident Assistants (RAs), trained students who are there to keep the building safe and build a sense of community within the hall. The RAs are required to complete pre-fall and pre-spring training sessions to keep them up to date on important policies and procedures.

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Sophomore DIGIT major Eliza Greenawalt has been an RA in Lawrence Hall since Fall 2017. “Each night, an RA is on duty and does four or five rounds to make sure the building and residents are safe,” Greenawalt began. “We take everything seriously, whether someone is making an inappropriate joke that could be considered harmful or a threat, the whole way to actual dangers that could occur in the residence hall.”

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With any major on-campus incident comes the question of safety. Between Police Services, the response time from local fire departments and the RAs, Behrend has shown initiative towards creating a safe environment for students.