Fire alarm leaves students in the dark

“It all started with me going to bed around (midnight). Then, I was abruptly (awakened) by my roommate flailing her arms yelling, ‘Chelsee! Fire!’ ” said Chelsee Meyers, a freshman business major living in Gladding Residence Center III, the dormitory that houses honors students.

After hearing a 2 a.m. fire alarm last Wednesday, many honor students found themselves outdoors because the fire sprinklers were flooding rooms on the fourth floor.

Some students remained outside until 6 a.m., while others spent time in the GRC community room.

“The sprinkler was set off unintentionally by a student, and we had people come out immediately,” said Rachel Maddux, director of residential life and housing. As maintenance employees vacuumed the excess water, temporarily homeless students waited in the GRC’s community room keeping themselves entertained by watching movies, finishing homework, and in some cases, singing and dancing to music played on laptop computers.

Chase Bland, a junior mechanical engineering and physics major who serves as a resident assistant for the dorm stayed awake helping wherever he was needed.

“We’re trying to do our job and we’re trying to keep everyone happy. We bought doughnuts and drinks,” Bland said as students waited to re-enter the dormitory.

Most students returned to their rooms by 6 a.m., but residents of some flooded areas couldn’t enter their rooms until later that morning.

“Our goal is to make sure students are taken care of,” Maddux said. VCU Residential Life and Housing Services offered alternative rooms to students with damaged rooms in the same facility, and residents have been opening doors and windows to help air out damp places.

For at least one student, the situation made her feel uneasy about fire safety in the dormitories.

Elizabeth Clemens, a junior interior-design major living on the second floor of GRC III, said she didn’t trust the fire alarms in her dorm, and when she moved in last year, she didn’t think they worked properly in her dormitory.

“I just hope that it wasn’t a malfunction of the fire-safety system,” Clemens said as she finished some homework in the community room while waiting to get back inside the dorms.