The absence of sounding alarms during the fire on Syracuse University’s South Campus last week was the result of one of the apartment’s five alarms melting from the intense heat of the blaze, said university safety and risk management officials, but some South Campus residents still aren’t sure the alarms ever sounded.

When the alarm in the front bedroom, where the fire began, melted, it interrupted the electrical circuit of all of the alarms in the apartment, which made them all inactive, said John Rossiter, SU safety manager. Rossiter said he believes the alarms went off until the one alarm melted from the intense heat of the fire, which disturbed the system.

Rossiter said he believes the alarms were not heard because of a concrete barrier in the walls between each apartment.

‘It is our belief if the occupants had been in the apartment, the alarms would have given the occupants time to get out,’ said Kevin Morrow, director SU News Services.

Lt. Tony Morgan, a fire investigator with the Syracuse Fire Department, said he is still not sure one way or the other whether the alarms in the apartment went off.

Maddie Nicholson, who lives next door to Winding Ridge Building 320, apartment No. 5 where the fire occurred, said she does not believe the fire alarms ever went off in the apartment.

Nicholson, who made the 911 call, said a few days prior to the fire she and her roommates had set off an alarm while cooking, so she said they knew they should have been able to hear it.

‘Had it gone off in our building, I’m pretty sure we would have heard it,’ said Nicholson, who was in her apartment at the time. ‘It definitely never went off.’

A window of the apartment where the fire occurred was open, which is how Nicholson said she saw the smoke. She said that if the alarms had gone off, they should have heard it through the window.

‘Even sitting in my room, I can hear music playing in other apartments,’ Nicholson said. ‘I feel you definitely would be able to hear it, had it gone off.’

The fire alarms in every South Campus apartment are tested once a year, Rossiter said. The alarms in Apartment No. 5 were tested on June 22, and were deemed fully functional.

All five alarms in South Campus apartments are hard wired, built into the electrical system so there is never a chance of them dying like battery operated ones, said David E. Pajak, the director of the SU risk management department.

The alarms are not connected between different apartments, Pajak said. He said this is why the alarms in the adjacent apartments did not go off.

The concrete slabs the SU safety officials said they believe kept people from hearing the alarms are a fire-safety feature, Pajak said. They help isolate fire, heat and smoke from spreading from one apartment to another.

Rossiter said the blaze demonstrated how the slabs limit the spread of fire, since no other apartment could feel heat from the fire or suffer from any damage.

Unlike the residence halls, South Campus apartments are not outfitted with fire sprinklers, Pajak said. He said since the apartments are much easier to get out of than residence halls, that sprinklers are not a necessary safety feature.

The fire was officially caused by candles left burning in the unattended apartment, said Morgan. He said one of the two tenants told him she had left candles burning on a table in her bedroom.

Morgan said most likely when the candles burned down, they set a small lamp sitting on the table on fire, which then spread to a stereo on the ground.

The use of candles in any university residence hall or apartment is prohibited in the university housing policy.

Kevin Morrow said any disciplinary actions against the residents of the apartment are being handled by the Office of Judicial Affairs and declined to comment further on possible punishment.

Sophomores Rita Khweye and Allie Whiting were the residents of the apartment, according to Syracuse University directories.

Both girls relocated to live with friends on South Campus, Rossiter said.

The cleaning of the apartment has started and the apartment should be habitable in a couple of weeks, Pajak said.

The estimated cost of cleanup, not including the purchase of new furniture or other purchases needed is $7,000, Rossiter said.

Published on September 3, 2006 at 12:00 pm