Western Front - 1997 November 18

              TUESDAY
November 18, 1997
WESTERN FRONT
Western Washington University Volume 102 Issue 15 Bellingham, Washington Fire guts dorm room
Residents evacuate to safety; nobody was injured
By David Plakos
The Western Front
Despite the many, precaution­ary
measures Western has enacted
to avoid fires, the room of two
women in Mathes Hall was total­ly
destroyed by fire early Monday
morning. One of the women liv­ing
in the room said the fire
extinguisher in the hall would not
come off the wall.
No injuries were reported.
A resident in the burned room
escaped with only her bible and
her photo album, while her room­mate
escaped with nothing but
her life.
"That's 18 years of my life,
gone," said one of the room's
occupants, speaking on the condi­tion
of anonymity.
The fire ruined room 814 and
there was smoke.and water dam­age
to the adjacent rooms and
hallway.
Fire . authorities said they
believe the fire was caused by a
malfunctioning clip-on lamp.
At 3:44 a.m., the fire alarm
sounded and approximately 300
residents were evacuated to
neighboring Nash Hall.
At 7 a.m., residents of floors
one through six and the majority
of floor seven residents were
allowed to return to their rooms.
Jo Collinge, of the Public
Information Office, said the rest
were "escorted in to pick up a few
personal items to last them the
next few days."
Fifty-seven students will not be
able to return to their rooms, due
to the fire damage. They will be
provided on-campus housing in
Fairhaven, the majority in Stack
One, which was being used for
conference space.
Four residents were away for
the weekend and will be assigned
space when they return.
No estimates have been given
for when displaced Mathes Hall
residents will be able to return; no
official damage estimate has been
given, either.
"If I had a ball-park guess, I'd
say $100,000," said Jim Kolb, an
inspector with the Bellingham
Fire Department.
A friend of the women whose
room burned said that when one
of the women returned for the
evening, she turned on her lamp.
When it didn't light up, she
assumed that the bulb was
burned out and didn't turn
it off.
"When one girl looked
up and looked at her room-mate'sbed,
there was a fire
over her head," Kolb said.
Apparently the woman's
pillow caught fire, he said.
"I don't know how she
woke up, but I'm very
grateful," said the anony­mous
resident, referring to
her roommate.
One of the women pro­ceeded
to pull the fire
alarm. The smoke detector
in the room also sounded.
The women said they
went into the hall to access
the fire extinguisher and
got to it, but could not get
the extinguisher out of its
casing.
"My roommate cracked
the glass, but the thing
wouldn't come," said the
anonymous resident.
She said that she and her
roommate then gave up and
just tried to get everybody
out of the building.
"The room was de­stroyed
— nothing salvage­able,"
Kolb said.
Kolb also said when fire
officials arrived, the door
to the room where the fire
originated was open and
this was the primary cause
of damage to other parts of
the hall.
"Had that solid door
been closed, the heat would
have been contained," Kolb
said. He added that because
other room doors, were
closed, other damages were
kept to a minimum.
"The ladies had prob­lems
with the lamp before,"
Kolb said. The lamp
allegedly would not always
work when turned on.
Several school officials
declined to discuss the
events that occurred in
Mathes and others did not return
phone calls.
Many residents were instructed
to refrain from commenting by
their Resident Advisors.
One major problem with the
evacuation was some residents
didn't wake up until late in the
evacuation, even with the fire
Front/Stuart Martin
Mathes room 814, scene of the Monday morning fire that forced students to relocate to Fairhaven.
caught on fire. said some residents were upset
Jordan Hartt, a freshman who that they had to wait to re-enter
lives on Mathes Hall's ninth floor the building.
alarm ringing and their RAs
banging on the doors, other
Mathes residents said.
Another problem residents had
was many reporters from televi­sion
stations, including KVOS,
arrived to see what happened.
"This morning it was obnox­ious
to see them here this early,"
said the woman whose room
and now relocated to Fairhaven,
said most people were feeling
relief.
"We're just glad nobody got
hurt," he said
Joel Wood, a freshman who
lives on the first floor of Mathes,
Eileen Coughlin, vice president
for Student Affairs and Dean of
Academic Support Services,
urged students affected to contact
their families to let them know
they are safe and where they are
staying.