Lamp starts fire at Forbes

By Tracy Culumber

Residents in Forbes Hall were forced to evacuate when a fire started on the third floor Monday evening, according to a report from the Champaign fire department.

Captain Dave Ferber of the fire department said Jaclyn O’Day and Lisa Ruszkowski, residents of room 386, where the fire started, were not in their room at the time of the fire, and no one was hurt.

Students waited outside Forbes Hall, 101 S. First St., for about one hour while firefighters extinguished the fire and secured the building.

Ferber said the fire originated with a halogen lamp that was clipped to the underside of a bunk bed, but it is unclear how the lamp ignited.

Although firefighters considered the fire moderate, Ferber estimated that the damages to the room structure and the residents’ personal items could add up to about $15,000.

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Kirsten Ruby, assistant director of housing for marketing, said few of the residents’ possessions were salvageable and a room on the second floor had some water damage from the sprinkler system.

“Candles, halogen lamps and extension cords are not supposed to be used, and for good reason,” Ruby said. “They are prohibited from the residence halls because they have histories of not being safe in these environments.”

She also said the fire was an unfortunate reminder that every time a fire alarm sounds, students need to take them seriously.

“I have heard (the building) was not evacuated as quickly as firefighters would have liked,” Ruby said.

Bob Wirtz, freshman in Education, said it was about 11:30 p.m. when the smoke alarm sounded, and residents could smell and see smoke coming from the east side of the building.

“Our smoke alarm randomly goes off for no reason, so I thought it was a drill actually,” Wirtz said. “We didn’t know what to expect.”

Mike Memmesheimer, freshman in LAS who lives on the fourth floor, said most students did not leave their rooms immediately.

“We left after we heard one of the RA’s yelling, ‘This is not a drill!'” Memmesheimer said.

Ferber said there was no sign that the evacuation was conducted improperly, but it should only take four to seven minutes to evacuate a building the size of Forbes.

“We would like to see everyone evacuated by the time we get there,” Ferber said.

He said the firefighters cleared the scene by 12:31 a.m. and students who were waiting outside were allowed to return to the building.

Memmesheimer said it was difficult for students to return to their rooms because the elevators were still turned off when they re-entered the building.

“There must have been 30 or 40 people in the stairwell at once,” Memmesheimer said.

Wirtz said the building smelled of smoke for about 14 hours after the firefighters left the building.