Fire in Barnard dorm does little damage

A fire broke out in 616 West 116th Street, a Barnard residence hall, on Thursday afternoon due to an ignited lamp, according to housing and fire safety administrators on site.

The fire originated in a room in suite 2D after a student left her clothing on the lamp. The lamp caught on fire and the fire spread to other clothing on the floor, but associate housing director Onika Jervis said there was no further damage.

Lizzy Hazard, BC ‘11 and a resident in 2D, said that she was the first to notice and report the fire. She heard the fire alarm while in her room and when she walked out into the hallway, she smelled smoke from another part of the suite.

“I noticed that there was smoke coming out of one of my suitemate’s rooms,” she said. She declined to give the suitemate’s name in order to protect her privacy. “When I knocked on the door no one answered and it was locked,” she said, adding that she ran downstairs and spoke to a security guard, who instructed her to call public safety.

The call came in at 4:25 p.m. and Barnard fire safety officials and the FDNY responded at 4:30, according to Barnard Fire Safety Officer Robert Bonistalli, who was on site at the time of the fire.

Firefighters smashed the windows in the room in which the fire originated in order to release the smoke, and then proceeded to throw all of the inflamed items down the airshaft, according to Cassandra Stroud, BC ’12, who lives in Suite 2A. Stroud lives on the same floor and said her suite was very smoky after the fire.

“People were trying to pick up what was salvageable, but they realized it was still smoldering so they poured water on everything and had to throw it out,” she said.

But the FDNY said that the fire was not severe.

“It was just a smoke condition,” John Vaeth, an FDNY firefighter, said, adding that beyond ruined items in the room, there was no actual fire damage.

He said the fire department did not even give it a 10-75, which is a notification signal indicating a fire.

Students living in the suite will not be relocated, according to Barnard Public Safety Officer Charlie Grullon.