Catawba College had no policy on when to call firefighters onto campus, college officials said Monday.
But that has changed, President Fred Corriher said one day after a fire early Sunday morning badly burned a small dormitory on the campus and killed a student.
It was the third fire to occur in or near the Foil House dormitory that night, but the Salisbury Fire Department was not called on the first two.
“Effective immediately, I instruct that ALL fires, regardless of how small or seemingly insignificant, be reported to the Salisbury Fire Department,” Corriher said in an e-mail memo to his cabinet members Monday.
“A written copy of this will be delivered to each of you tomorrow, and I would appreciate your sharing this instruction with all members of your staffs.”
Students had unplugged several smoke detectors in the Foil House after a second fire broke out in the laundry room that same night, firefighters believe. Students put out the fire and then called college security officers, said Salisbury Assistant Fire Chief Rick Fesperman.
Security officials did not call the Fire Department.
“Had we been contacted on the second fire, we would have done positive-pressure ventilation to clear the building of smoke,” Salisbury Fire Chief Sam Brady told a room of reporters and college officials on the campus Monday.
No arrests have been made, and investigators could not confirm Tuesday if they knew if the third fire had been deliberately set. The Salisbury Fire Department has called the fire “suspicious” because it was the third to ignite in the same general area within a short time.
“We’re hoping it’s not an intentionally set fire, but we have to eliminate all the possibilities,” Fesperman said.
Using a fire extinguisher, students put out a first fire at about 1:30 a.m. in a pile of leaves just outside the Foil House.
Fesperman said this morning that students extinguished the second fire about 2:30 a.m. in a plastic trash can in the building’s laundry room. Smoke from that fire set off alarms in the dorm.
Students later turned off the alarms by disconnecting them, Fesperman said. Tampering with a smoke alarm is a crime under federal law, but so far no one has been charged.
The third fire began near or on a couch in a common area shared by students in one of three suites in the dorm, according to the Fire Department. The Fire Department got the call at 3:27 a.m.
“Unfortunately, when the fire started in the common area upstairs, the smoke alarm did not activate,” Brady said.
Police and firefighters banged on doors throughout the building to rouse students. Grooms walked through the fire to reach the main entrance, where students then helped him away from the building.
Salisbury firefighters contained damage to just one of the dorm’s three suites and brought the fire under control by 5:20 a.m.
Salisbury Police Deputy Chief Mark Wilhelm said investigators are interviewing students and forwarding information to the district attorney’s office.
Students can be sanctioned if they don’t leave buildings when smoke alarms sound, said Catawba Senior Vice President and Chaplain Ken Clapp said. Dorms hold drills about every six weeks.
But students don’t always follow that rule, Clapp said. “They sometimes become lax in their response to this.”
Students used to sometimes turn on alarms in early morning hours, but the college has worked hard to stop that, Clapp said. The penalty is now a $10 fine.
The Foil House was renovated five or six years ago, Clapp said. The building did not have sprinklers and was not required to have them. It had the smoke alarms similar to those in all of the nine dorms on the campus.
Clapp said he recalls four other fires in dorms in his 12 years at Catawba, but none of those spread beyond one room.
Candles, incense and other burning materials are forbidden in the dorms.
Contact Brad A. Hodges at 704-797-4266 or bhodges@salisburypost.com
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