ROCK HILL, SC (WBTV) - Fire Investigator Captain Otis Driggers of the Rock Hill Fire Department said investigators have determined the fire started on a small section of flat roof where Owens Hall and Bancroft Annex join.

The cause of the fire at Owens Hall remains under investigation.

Officials said the fire doesn't appear to have originated in the mechanical room, HVAC and elevator systems. In addition, the only piece of mechanical equipment in that area of the roof is an exhaust fan which was also reviewed and ruled out.

Driggers said he expects to complete the investigation into the cause of the fire in the next week to ten days. He said it is possible the cause of the fire may not be determined.

On Tuesday, the University released several photos of the damage inside Owens Hall and Bancroft Annex.

"Firefighters poured 1.2 million gallons of water on the building in hopes of putting it out," said University Spokeswoman Judy Longshaw.

Firefighters said the damage to the roof was substantial and that water damage from battling the blaze caused extensive damage to other floors throughout the building.

The images released Tuesday showed classrooms, hallways and office areas that were damaged.

University officials said the roof will need to be replaced along with much of the building's interior due to smoke and water damage.

On Monday, some of the University staff were trying to salvage computer hard drives located inside Owens Hall.

"We've set up a center where recovery and restoration folks will be working to recover the files on those drive," said Winthrop University spokesperson Rebecca Masters.

Masters said there was a 48-hour window for crews to recover files off the hard drives before some would be lost forever.

Since Owens Hall is the newest building on campus, some students couldn't believe the fire ever happened.

"No, and especially not the newest building on campus, it's completely random," said student Stephanie Eaton.

Eaton and her friends were walking on campus on Saturday, March 6, when the fire occurred. They were the first ones to report the fire, she said.

"We looked over and saw a black plume of just smoke coming out from the roof," said Eaton.

Lucky for her, the fire was a learning situation. She's the photographer for the campus newspaper and she managed to take the first pictures of the fire.

"I took about 800 pictures," said Eaton.

Fire investigators have asked to borrow Eaton's pictures to see what caused the fire.

"He's using the pictures to see if he can map out where the fire began," said Eaton.

Kinnard Hall reopened to students and staff Tuesday morning. However, Owens Hall, Bancroft and Bancroft Annex remain closed.

Two Western State College students were killed, while four people escaped thanks to the quick actions of a passerby, in a fire that ravaged a historic Gunnison home at 121 N. Colorado St. in the early morning hours last Saturday.
 
It’s believed the fire started on or near an old couch located inside an unenclosed porch off the home’s front door, explained Gunnison Fire Marshal Dennis Spritzer. It is known that the occupants of the home and their frequent guests would go outside to smoke on the couch. However, the exact cause of the fire was undetermined as of press time and remains under investigation.
 
Spritzer said that although nothing had been ruled out yet, there were no signs that foul play was involved in the incident. Colorado Bureau of Investigations is assisting with the effort.
 
“I am confident we’ll be able to rule out any foul play,” Spritzer said. “I’m not as confident we’ll get to a source of ignition.”
 
Killed in the blaze were Adam Lockard, a 21-year-old WSC senior from Bethesda, Md., and Lucille “Lucy” Causley, an 18-year-old WSC freshman from Harbor Springs, Mich.
 
Three of the six people who were in the home at the time of the blaze, including Lockard, were tenants there. The other three were guests. Two other tenants were not home at the time of the incident, a college official reported. All but one were current WSC students.
 
Joaquin Vaughan, 22, who is also a WSC student, was on his way home after spending the evening riding along with the Gunnison Police Department as part of his field of study — sociology and criminal justice — when he noticed flames. He called 911 at 5:19 a.m.
 
But he didn’t stop there. With the fire rapidly accelerating from the couch up the house’s exterior wall and into the ceiling rafters, he burst inside to alert whomever might be in there.
 
“The porch was starting to catch ... that’s when I went inside,” Vaughan explained. “I started running around the house, yelling, ‘Fire, fire. Get out. Fire. I was just screaming my head off.”
 
Four were able to heed his warnings.
 
“He saved their lives,” Spritzer said.
 
Spritzer said that the Gunnison Volunteer Fire Department’s command vehicle was on the scene within three minutes of the page. Within five more minutes, a full arsenal of fire apparatus was there, he said.
 
“When we got there we saw a fully involved porch and a fully involved living room area,” Spritzer said. “The fire had vented through a couple of windows already. We saw smoke coming out the eves around the front of the house.”
 
Spritzer said firefighters knew that four people had made it out of the house, but were unaware if more remained inside.
 
“We didn’t know, so we treat it like, yes, there was someone in there,” he said.
 
Two Gunnison Police officers were also on scene, assisting in the attempt to locate occupants of the house.
 
Spritzer recounted that a fire fighting entry team began dousing the porch first. They also hit one of the windows that was venting. They went inside, and then backed out.
 
A second team entered the inferno. Spritzer explained that they made it upstairs and had successfully searched one of the four bedrooms there when what he calls a “smoke explosion” occurred.
 
“You’ve got a lot of particulate in the smoke that is unburned combustibles,” he explained. “That all ignites at once ... it just takes off in the room. I haven’t seen one for a long time.”
 
“When that event occurred, we pulled everyone out, for safety’s sake,” Spritzer said. “And then we fought the rest of the fire from exterior.”
 
According to Gunnison County Coroner Frank Vader, Lockard and Causley were found in an upstairs bedroom. Autopsies revealed that they each died of acute carbon monoxide poisoning from inhaling smoke, causing asphyxia.
 
One Gunnison Police officer was injured from broken glass. One firefighter experienced smoke inhalation. Both were treated and released from Gunnison Valley Hospital, according to a press release issued by Gunnison Police Chief Keith Robinson.
 
Barry and Linda Mandelkorn of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., the parents of a former WSC student, are the owners of the property.
 
The house dates back to 1903.
 
Spritzer said the home did have two smoke detectors, but the one upstairs did not have a battery.

Green Bay, Wi-University officials turn to contingency plans in aftermath of fire Officials at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay expect to notify individual students within a week as to fall housing options in the wake of a major fire Tuesday morning (June 25) at the Residence Life complex on campus.

Fire destroyed the building at 3334 Walter Way, also known as Building 109. The two-story structure with 17 units and 63 beds was unoccupied for the summer. No one was injured. No other structures were damaged.

Sue Keihn, associate provost and dean of students for UW-Green Bay, said she is “optimistic” the University will nonetheless be able to accommodate all of the 2,000 students currently holding fall-semester housing contracts.

Keihn and Glenn Gray, director of Residence Life, began discussions Thursday morning even as the emergency-response phase was winding down. They and others will make a recommendation to University leadership on how best to proceed.

“We’ll take a day or two to evaluate things,” Gray said. “Our continuity plans spell out a number of different options.”

Fall-semester classes begin Sept. 3 at UW-Green Bay. About 2,000 of the school’s 6,200 students reside on campus. Housing demand is intense for fall semester, but typically declines for spring as mid-year graduations, study-abroad trips and other departures free up capacity. There is currently a waiting list of 220 applicants for fall occupancy.

Neither Keihn nor Gray would speculate on a front-runner among possible options for dealing with what is now a 63-bed shortfall. As of late Thursday afternoon, possibilities under consideration included reconfiguring existing units to allow for additional beds (at reduced rates for renters); arranging for temporary, modular housing on site; or contracting for temporary housing with off-campus providers.

Keihn says the University will make a priority of informing students as soon as possible, and minimizing any disruption.

There are a total of 25 halls or residential buildings in UW-Green Bay’s Residence Life complex. The structure destroyed Tuesday was one of nine “traditional” or original apartment buildings completed in 1970.

Gray praised the action of on-site staff during the emergency. While Building 109 and most of the other traditional apartment buildings were not scheduled for occupancy until the return of undergraduate students in late August, residence halls nearby did have overnight residents.

A total of 69 summer campers were evacuated as a precaution from Schaefer, Temp and Long halls, the residence halls located nearest the fire scene, shortly after the fire call at 5:13 a.m. In total, about 500 teenagers are residing on campus this week for summer camps including UW-Green Bay’s Summer Art Studio, the Upward Bound and Trio pre-college programs, and the Wisconsin School Music Association honors camp. The day’s camps went on as scheduled.

“Fortunately, staff members were right on top of this,” Gray said. “The counseling and professional staff from the Summer Camp program and Residence Life, along with Public Safety and the emergency-response team, did great work. They deserve a great deal of credit.”

Officials evaluating the damage estimated a replacement cost exceeding $3 million for the Building 109 fire. Investigators seeking to determine a cause were unable to enter the wreckage of the building until mid-day. Arson has already been ruled out, and the cause is currently listed as “undetermined.”

Gray said cleanup could begin shortly. Security personnel will be on site through the night until fencing can be installed Friday to secure the scene.

As for rebuilding, the University’s vice chancellor for business and finance, Thomas Maki, said that discussion will take place over the coming weeks. In light of strong demand, the University since the mid-1980s has authorized construction of a total of 16 new residence halls by its private, non-profit partner, University Village Housing, Inc.

UW-Green Bay and UVHI representatives monitor demand and waiting lists on a regular basis, Maki said, to evaluate the feasibility of additional units, and Thursday’s fire adds a new dimension to ongoing planning.

Student dies in off-campus house fire in East Grand Rapids, Michigan

Fatality is the sixth death this academic year

BELCHERTOWN, Mass., May 20, 2009 — Colin Grenn, a student at Grand Valley State University, was killed in an off-campus house fire in East Grand Rapids, Michigan. The fire occurred at approximately 3:36 am on Wednesday, May 13 in a two-story, wood frame, single-family rental house . At the time of the fire there were two other occupants in addition to Colin Grenn that included his brother, Jesse Grenn and Kristen Sternberger.

According to Captain Chuck Clark with the East Grand Rapids Public Safety Department, Sternberger, who was on the second floor, was wakened and smelled smoke. She went to her bedroom door, which was hot, and opened it. Smoke immediately came into her room and she closed the door. She then climbed out on the porch roof and called 911 using her cell phone to report the fire. An additional call was made by Colin Grenn from his bedroom to 911.

The first arriving police officer reported heavy smoke and fire and made entry into the house, located Jesse Grenn and removed him from the building. When fire department personnel arrived on the scene they were able to rescue Sternberger from the roof and additional crews entered the building to locate Colin Grenn. He was found in his bedroom on the second floor, removed from the building, treated on the scene and then transported to the hospital. He passed away on Monday, May 18. The cause of death has not been determined as of this time.

According to Clark, the fire appeared to originate in a room on the first floor and extended up to the second floor. The cause of the fire has not been determined, pending test results from the State Fire Marshal’s office. It is unreported at this time whether smoke alarms were present or operational.

This is the sixth campus-related fire death of the 2008-2009 academic year. In the 2007-2008 academic year, 18 people were killed in campus-related fires. Since Campus Firewatch began gathering information in 2000, 135 people have been killed in campus-related fires across the nation with over 80 percent of them in off-campus housing.

Campus Firewatch monitors the wire services on a daily basis to identify campus-related fire deaths. These incidents include on-campus, off-campus and Greek housing and any death that occurs in these occupancies that are related to student occupancy is included. This is the only source available for this comprehensive level of information which is made publicly available on the Resource page of the Campus Firewatch website at www.campus-firewatch.com under “Current Fire Information.”Campus Firewatch is a social enterprise focusing on campus fire safety. For more information, visit our website at www.campus-firewatch.com.

Fatal Campus-Related Fires compiled by Campus Firewatch

3 hurt in science building fire at Wesleyan University

MIDDLETOWN, Conn. (WTNH) - Three people were treated for injuries after a fire broke out at the Hall-Atwater science building at Wesleyan University.

Firefighters were called to the building near the intersection of High Street and Lawn just after 11:30 p.m. Sunday.

The fire caused "significant" damage to a lab on the first floor of the building and damaged nearby rooms.

According to a university spokesperson, a student was working on a project in a lab, then left for the night. Another student in a nearby lab smelled smoke and immediately called Wesleyan Public Safety officers.

The officers were unable to extinguish the lab fire themselves and called out the Middletown Fire Department.

The two officers were treated and released at the hospital for minor injuries suffered while fighting the fire. A Middletown firefighter also received minor chemical burns. He was treated at the hospital and then went back to the university.

The Hall-Atwater Building will be closed Monday while officials inspect the damage, and students will use other lab facilities, the spokesperson said.