By SHEALYN PRATT
A power outage as students began their nighttime routines, followed by a fire alarm blaring through the halls the next afternoon, made for a stressful 24 hours in Cunningham Hall.
On Tuesday, Sept. 15, a thunderstorm knocked out power to Cunningham Hall and the Ranger Apartments on Monroe Street. The tennis court lights and lights near Ament Hall also went out. In the halls of Cunningham, students could hear people screaming like they’ve never experienced a thunderstorm or a power outage before.
Kinsey Roberts was on shift that evening and said all of the residential housing workers communicate with each other as soon as something like this happens in any of the buildings. Roberts also said Cunningham Hall’s head resident assistant, Ava Miller, receives hands-on help from Matt Adair, assistant dean of student affairs and recruitment director of housing, and Kaylea Brown, residence life coordinator, during severe situations.
“We drop everything and make sure we can take care of the students,” Roberts said. “Because the fire alarms were down and we had to make sure that nothing was going to catch on fire or anything like that.”
As soon as power went out, a mandatory meeting for the RAs was held in the dark lobby of Cunningham. The meeting was joined by Calleb Mossburg and residents of the building, who spent time downstairs talking before returning to their rooms or waiting out the storm together.
The power came back on at 11:14 pm.
The next afternoon, the fire alarms began sounding throughout the halls around 1p.m. Usually, the annoying sound of these alarms is followed by a heavy knock and a RA yelling the words “fire drill!” This time it was real.
Once students left their rooms, fearing that everything they owned could potentially go up in flames, another RA led them to the evacuation point near the tennis courts across from Cunningham.
“Everyone was there within five minutes,” Roberts said.
Emergency alerts were sent to the Alva Fire Department as soon as the fire emergency occurred on campus. Fire trucks arrived within minutes and assessed the situation. Roberts said firefighters could not tell RAs which floor the fire started on, but they did say it began in a laundry room on either the first or third floor.
Jacklyn Hawkins, a Cunningham custodian, said she saw a vent on the first floor smoking that afternoon and stopped the dryer as soon as she determined which one it was. She mentioned all of the Cunningham laundry rooms having poor ventilation and that she spent all of Thursday cleaning out the vents.
“The problem is these laundry rooms don’t have good air circulation,” Hawkins said. “So it’s very easy for a fire to start.”
Since there wasn’t an exact cause for the fire, Roberts wants residents to remember that the dorm rules are in place for a reason.
“Follow the appliance rules,” Roberts warned. “I know we want candles and all of that stuff but you don’t want all of your stuff to go up in flames. Clear out your lint traps, even if it seems like there isn’t a lot. Take care of the building that you’re living in. We are trying to take care of you.”
Once firefighters cleared the building and residents were allowed back inside, the 24-hour period of emergency services and phone calls came to an end. Students and faculty were left to bear the rest of the school week as usual.