Late last semester in the midst of finals, a fire started in the third floor Bruce Thomas Hall dryers. The incident caused the fire alarm to go off in the Thomas and Camille Lightner Residence Halls, forcing residents to evacuate.
The fire and alarms affected many people living in Thomas and Lightner, including Milo Black, senior finance major and resident assistant in Thomas, who recounted the night of the fire, Thursday, Dec. 11. Although Black has worked as an RA for two semesters, the situation was one he had never experienced before.
“Whenever the alarm rang … I was a little bit concerned because that’s the first time I’ve heard the alarm ring that wasn’t a drill at Trinity. So, I came out, knocked on all my residents’ doors to let them know … then headed out to the side of Thomas where there’s the third-floor entrance,” Black said. “After that, we just waited out there and cleared the sidewalk to make sure any emergency services could make it in clearly.”
After about two hours, students were allowed back into their dorms. With the alert from the fire alarms and the help of emergency services, all students remained safe and the fire was contained to only the dryer in which it began.
“I was really impressed by the residents’ response. … [They] really made the whole thing a cakewalk,” Black said. “TUPD and the fire department both did a great job. They were very informative. We got to know what happened pretty quickly from when they knew they had all their bases covered.”
No students were injured in the fire, and for most, the incident was merely an inconvenience. Some students, including Taylor Hervey, sophomore psychology major, were not surprised. Hervey, who had sent in work orders regarding the state of the dryers, was frustrated that it took one catching fire to get attention.
“It was bound to happen. … It was taking people hours to dry their laundry. And when people would take [their laundry] out, I would always look for the dryers that weren’t like soaking wet on the inside,” Hervey said. “I had put in a work order where I was like, ‘Hey, these filters need to be maintained.’ … But, yeah, nothing ever happened.”
Trinity University implied that the fire began due to misuse of the lint filters. The day after the fire, Residential Life sent an email stating that the fire had begun in the lint tray of the dryer, likely either due to overloading and non-removal of lint from the tray. Residential Life reminded students to remove lint from dryers before use and stated that the dryers were safe and ready for student use.
However, some students argue this is not the full story. Juan De Jesus Sanchez, sophomore communication major, was using the dryer when it caught on fire. Sanchez asserted that he removed the lint from the filter before using the dryer.
“The dryers have not been working forever. It’s just annoying that they’re just blaming this one thing when there’s work orders in for them like already being broken and then nothing being done about them and already not having working ones,” Sanchez said. “Y’all should have fixed them to begin with and that wouldn’t have happened.”
Sanchez expressed frustration with the lack of maintenance on the dryers and the process of being reimbursed for his lost property. Over $1,000 of his clothing was destroyed.
“[Trinity] connected me with whatever the laundry machine’s insurance was a part of, so I was doing claims through them, but they said they were going to take a while,” Sanchez said. “I had to respond to them within 10 business days or the whole thing was just going to go as pending or they’re just going to terminate it and drop the whole thing. Or, I could take a $50 settlement when the total I was asking was $1,300.00.” Sanchez said.
