By Jordan Green, Editor-in-Chief
Cunningham Hall students didn’t have heat in the building for most of the weekend. Then they had too much.
Students in the dormitory were evacuated because of a fire early Monday morning, just two weeks after the university rededicated the newly renovated building in honor of the university’s former president.
The Alva Fire Department, Alva EMS and Alva Police Department were dispatched to the dormitory at 12:18 a.m. Monday, according to a social media post from the fire department.
The lobby and parts of the first floor were filled with smoke because a gas fireplace malfunctioned and started a small fire, officials said. University maintenance workers were in the building working on the heating system when the fire began, and they quickly called 911, said Kelsey Martin, director of University Relations.
Students were evacuated from the building while firefighters extinguished the fire and ventilated the building.
Students were allowed back in after a little more than two hours.
“All students were evacuated and accounted for and fed by NWOSU staff until they were allowed back in,” according to the fire department’s post. “[Because of] the quick activation of the alarm and evacuation, NWOSU staff kept this fire contained to the fire place.”
The cause of the fire remains under investigation, Martin said.
“We’re still looking into that part,” Martin said. “Being a new system, we’re not sure what could have gone wrong there.”
Cunningham Hall was recently renamed in honor of retired Northwestern President Dr. Janet Cunningham. The university hosted a rededication ceremony Jan. 20 following the completion of the dormitory’s nearly $5 million remodeling project. The building was renovated from top to bottom, and many fixtures were replaced – including the lobby fireplace.
A COLD AWAKENING
When the fire alarms began to sound, Cunningham Hall resident Ava Carr thought the sound might have been a false alarm.
“I was a little annoyed,” Carr said. “I thought, ‘Really? We’ve had no heat all weekend and now the fire alarm is going off?’”
Carr learned the alarms were sounding for the right reason once she saw girls standing outside.
“One problem, the heat, was solved, and then we immediately ran into another problem,” she said of the fire. “Everyone was shivering, and we tried to huddle together and block the wind. I wish I had brought a blanket like some other girls, but I had only grabbed my coat.”
Resident Rose Negelein was still asleep when the alarms began to sound.
“When I fully woke up, I realized that it was the fire alarm, so I basically jumped out of bed, and I tripped over my laundry basket,” Negelein said.
Negelein went to check on her sister, who also lives in her suite, and then they walked downstairs together.
“I thought it was another false alarm because there was no smoke on the second floor,” Negelein said.
“When we got down to the first floor, it was completely full of smoke. And we’re like, ‘Oh, this isn’t another false alarm.’”
Resident M’Cheila Rader also said she thought the alarm was false. The fire alarm system malfunctioned twice in Cunningham Hall earlier this semester, and the university’s dormitories have had several false alarms in the past.
“I wasn’t scared, but myself and many of the other girls were annoyed and tired,” she said. “A lot of us were asleep and did not want to stand outside in below freezing temperatures in our pjs.”
After evacuating the building, students moved to the Coronado Cafeteria, where they ate food and played board games until they could return to the dorm.
“It was like an impromptu sleepover,” Carr said.
Residents were allowed back in the building around 3 a.m., students said, and they were excused from attending class Monday. But while they could stay away from class, they couldn’t escape the smell.
“When I finally made it back to my room today, I was annoyed that there is still a strong smell of smoke lingering in the whole dorm,” Rader said. “I would light a candle to get rid of the smoke smell, but that kind of defeats the whole purpose. … There was smoke in the first place.”