The fire alarms “woke me up and it was scary,” said Resident Assistant, Uwanique Brown. “That was just my train of thought: ‘Get up, get outside, get the students outside.’”
At about 2:10 in the morning on Wednesday, April 3, students from Woodlands Hall 2 were abruptly woken up. Four hours later, the Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students, Dr. Randall Edouard, informed the campus community through an email that a fire occurred in the residence hall. The email explained, “The Office of Residential Life staff and members of the University Police Department evacuated the building and the Westbury Fire Department responded and extinguished the fire before 2:30 a.m.”
Later that evening, Dr. Edouard notified the community that a dryer on the second floor of the building caused the fire.
Students from Woodlands Hall 2 were transferred to Woodlands Hall 5, where they will be located for the remainder of the semester.
Brown recalled seeing smoke as students waited outside their building eager to find out what was happening. “It was very chaotic,” she said. “There was a lot of questioning.”
Transfer students, Elijah Fergusson and Joseyline Florentino, thought it was just another drill at first. Florentino grabbed her jacket and went outside. She explained that once the fire department showed up to extinguish the fire, students began to realize that the alarms indicated an actual fire. Like Brown, she saw smoke come out of a second floor window.
Fergusson, who was on the first floor when the fire began, exited without any of his belongings. “I went outside quickly without grabbing anything, and then later on, when I’m hearing it was a real fire, then I was like, ‘I should’ve grabbed stuff’ because I didn’t have anything,” he said. He thought the fire alarms took longer to shut off than they usually would for drills, which indicated it may have been a real fire.
While the fire alarm stood out to some students during the incident, sophomore Fevour Edosa had a different experience. Edosa also thought it was just a drill, but remembered hearing a “stampede” of students. She left everything, including her phone, in her room. “I don’t care about my clothes. I don’t care,” she said, “my life is important.”
SUNY Old Westbury’s CFO & Vice President of Business and Finance, Martha Santana sent an email to The Catalyst and the Media Innovation Center about the cause of the fire. She explained, “the Fire Marshal determined that the fire was deemed an accident caused by overfilling the dryer and the presence of some plastic material found inside the dryer.”
The dryer was a Speed Queen Commercial dryer. However, the model was not visible, Santana wrote.
According to R.A. Brown, there have been student complaints about the dryers in the past. Students believe there should be replacements and repairs made to the dryers, she explained. “There was a lot of work orders that had to be done to get them fixed and if you have a problem, you shouldn’t just continuously put like a Band-Aid over the wound,” Brown said. “Those dryers are old.”
The dryers in Woodlands Hall 2 were both manufactured and installed in June of 2012, according to Suzette Foster, the Assistant Vice President for Business Operations.
Speed Queen dryers should last for 10,400 drying cycles, according to the company’s website. “Using an average of 8 loads of laundry per week, that adds up to 25 years of use in your home,” the website reads.
Fevour Edosa expressed her frustration with the dryers. “When I put my clothes in the dryer, it doesn’t dry it sometimes,” she said. “Sometimes it’ll dry it so much,” she told the Catalyst and the Media Innovation Center as she showed the lack of vibrance in the pants she was wearing.
Dr. Edouard explained that when he hears a resident complaint about a dryer, he contacts Maintenance and Facilities. After that, they contact the company who services the machines. “We do work orders, we send those work orders and they come and check the machines routinely and if there is an issue, they fix those issues,” he said.
Service calls go to the company who owns and services the machines, Automatic Services, Foster wrote to The Catalyst and the Media Innovation Center. According to Foster, a technician typically services the machines on campus weekly.
Students can report their concerns to a Resident Assistant or Resident Hall Director, Dr. Edouard advised. Signage about dryer safety will also continue to be posted, he said.
Looking forward, the university has partnered with the Office of General Services for the Hall 2 restoration process. Dr. Edouard said, “we want to do everything possible to make sure that when we put students back in the building that the building is 100% safe.”
Dr. Edouard pointed out potential issues that may lie within the building prior to repairs. “Smoke could get in the walls, smoke could get in the vents,” he said. Water was sprayed from the sprinklers, which could lead to mold formation under the carpet. “We want to do our due diligence,” Dr. Edouard continued.
Additionally, there are repairs and/or replacements to be made to the doors in the building. In an effort to ensure students were safely out of their buildings, approximately 20 doors were knocked down, according to Dr. Edouard. Door handles were also broken, students reported.
The university scheduled times for Hall 2 students to retrieve their items after the fire. According to Dr. Edouard, professional staff members escorted students to their rooms to get their personal belongings.
The Panther Community Care Center also provided resources to affected students. The center hosted a Clothing Drive and Emergency Relief Pickups for these students. Resources ranged from clothing items to personal hygiene products to bedding to cooking utensils.
“It’s important to send the message to students that they matter, that we care about them,” said SUNY Old Westbury’s Single Stop Coordinator and an organizer for the events, Jean Telfort. “We want to also ensure that they know that there’s a community behind them. They have a support system readily accessible and available.”
