Point News, 2001 September 4

              DIANA EKELMAN
editor-in-chief
It was the night after gradua­tion,
May 13, 2001 when most
students had already packed up
and headed home for the sum­mer.
Not a student was stirring
at 4:02 a.m., except for third-year
student and
ResidentAssistant
Nathan Crowe
and the four other
students living in
transitional sum­mer
housing in
C aro lin e R e s i­dence
Hall. It was
at that time that
Crowe called Pub­lic
Safety about a
fire that was in
progress in the
second-right hall.
The fire oc-fighting
forces, including the
Patuxent Naval Air Station and
the Ridge Volunteer Fire Depart­ment,
responded to the alarm.
According to the Public Safety
report, power outages to the build­ing
caused firefighters to force
the door open. After it was extin-
Heat and flames destroyed this exit sign in the
hallway.
photo courtesy of April Weimer
curred in a small maintenance
closet being used for storing an
excess of trash left by the stu­dents
who had recently moved
out. The cause is officially un­able
to be determined because the
fire smoldered for a long time
before it set off the alarms in
Caroline. However, the Mary­land
State Fire Marshal, Roy
Metzer, who arrived on the scene
at 5:30 a.m., indicated to college
officials that the fire was most
likely caused by a lit cigarette
butt, or something of that nature,
tossed into the trash.
Units from several different fire
guished once and then flared
back up again, the fire was fi­nally
suppressed at 4:32 a.m.
Clean up from the
fire was com­pleted
by 6:30
a.m.
There was no
in d icatio n o f
forced entry or
other evidence to
indicate that the
fire was arson.
AssistantDean
o f Residence
Life Joanne Goldwater indicated
that the damage, though not over­whelming,
was impressive. The
ceiling was pitch black from
smoke, door signs and exit signs
were melted, the trash closet was
black and needed to be repainted,
and many of the brand-new phone
lines were destroyed. Goldwater
said that it was “terribly frighten­ing.
[I] am very grate­ful
that no one was
hurt.”
Ed Adams, the di­re
cto r o f Public
Safety, indicated, “this
by far would have
been the most serious
fire [at St. Mary’s] had
there been normal stu­dent
occupancy.”
Everyone involved
expresses relief that no
one was injured.
Goldwater said she
was “pleased with the
way it was handled.” Crowe is
especially commended by both
Goldwater and Adams for his
assistance with
the other stu­dents
in the
building. Here-acted
swiftly,
moving the
other students
in the building
out to his car,
which was a
safe distance
away from
Caroline.
In response to the seriousness
"This by far
would have been
the most serious
fire [at St.
Mary's] had there
been normal stu­dent
occupancy."
Fire heavily damaged the trash closet and
other areas of Caroline second-right last May.
photo courtesy of April Weimer
of this incident, Goldwater em­phasizes
“the need to be more
fire safety aware.” According
to her, the Fire Marshal “was
very clear that we were not
supposed to be using that closet
[for trash].” She has been work­ing
this year with Residence
Hall Coordinators to ensure that
the Caroline fire is not repeated
when there are more students
living in the building. Her hope
is that this will prevent future
safety issues.
Point of origin of the fire
St. Mary’s College of Maryland
S t. M a ry ’s c am p u s w e e k ly • 5 3 rd y e a r, N o . 1 S e p t em b e r 4 , 2 0 0 1 • S t. M a ry ’s C ity , M D 2 0 6 8 6
Caroline residence hall
damaged in fire; no injuries
Montgomery Hall receives much-needed roof renovations
JANET FRANK
features editor
Over the summer, Montgom­ery
Hall got a new roof, much to
the joy of the theater department.
Montgomery has been leaking for
several years, and because of the
way the roof slopes, most of the
leaks, no matter where they start,
end up dripping into the scene
shop and theater.
The work on the roof was done
by J.E. Woods and Sons, Inc.
They started working the Mon­day
after graduation and finished
around mid-July. The old roof
was worn by time and elements,
but also from students climbing
and playing on it. Dan Branigan,
the Physical Plant director, says
there were holes punched through
the roof from where heavy ob­jects
had been set down. The
substrata had to be repaired, and
several joints replaced. The new
roof has a ten-year v* irranty, and
has a new color of shingles.
The repairs were unpleasant
for those working in Montgom­ery
over the summer. The air
conditioning was shut off and it
was hot and smelly, according to
Amy Gilley, the theater’s techni­cal
director. At one point, the
drains were installed incorrectly,
and during a rain storm ten gal­lons
of water poured into the
men’s dressing room, destroying
several ceiling tiles and damaging
some costumes, as well as leak­ing
into the division office below.
The drains were reinstalled, and
the costumes dry cleaned.
People who work in the theater
department have many stories
about the leaks and problems
caused by them. There have
been leaks over the lighting boards
in the theater and the table saw in
the scene shop. It was necessary
for David Fura, the former tech­nical
director, to design what is
called the “theater condom”— a
long plastic wrapping extending
from the source of a major leak in
the theater to a bucket. Mark
Rhoda, the theater operations
specialist, has a story about Par­ent
Weekend in the fall of 1995.
During a performance of the
musical “Happy End,” there was
a torrential downpour. There
were multiple leaks, and it was
necessary to have a bucket under
the heaviest of them, and to con­stantly
switch buckets through­out
the performance. At one
point, the full, heavy bucket fell,
narrowly missing one of the ac­tors
and splashing the perform­ers
and audience. To their credit,
the actors continued as if nothing
had happened.
All of the roof leaks seem to
be fixed now. At the first heavy
rain after the new roof was
installed, Dan Branigan went
over to Montgomery to check.
He found no leaks, and none
have been reported since. There
are still a few leaks in the theater
department, but these are be­liev
ed to be from a n o th e r
source, perhaps the air condi­tioning
or water pipes.
In s id e
N EW S ...............................................................................2
F E A T U R E S ........................................... ......................3
FO CUS............................................................................. 4
A & E .................................................................................. 5
O P IN IO N S ............................................................... 6 -7
H UM O R .................... ....................................................8
I
D orch est er
A Point News staff writer investi­gates
the reputation and rumors about
Dorchester residence hall. Page
three.
S moking B an
A new feature of the opinions
section lets students sound off
against one another in a pro/con
debate. Page six.
it
t!
T he C ynic of S t .
M ary's
This week the Cynic endeav­ors
to explain our crazy campus
traditions. Page eight.