At 1:25pm on Thursday, March 5th, the smoke detectors in New Hall went off. They were triggered on the fourth floor and in the attic. Students were evacuated from the building and emergency services arrived at 1:37pm. The situation was resolved without harm.
When commenting about the conditions in the building, Officer Bret Davis with the Collegeville Police Department said, “The fourth floor smelled strongly of smoke, but it wasn’t so concentrated that it couldn’t be visibly observed. Everyone was evacuated for safety reasons.” A student, Dante Ottaviani ’26, said this about the conditions in the building: “I left my dorm on the third floor and I could smell smoke and it was visibly foggy.”
Students were allowed to return to their rooms roughly an hour after emergency services arrived. As with any major event on campus, unfounded rumors spread quickly about the actual cause of the fire. According to student Andreas Cruz ’27, “I heard someone had said it was burnt popcorn that set off the fire alarm, I also heard people say it was a lit cigarette.”
So, this begs the question, what actually caused the alarms to go off? Craig Penuel, Assistant Chief of the Collegeville Fire Department, said, “There was no fire, basically there was a malfunctioning HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning) unit.” He additionally mentioned that it may have been an issue with one of the HVAC belts. Campus safety did not respond to a request for comment.
This isn’t the first time the fire department has had to come to campus recently. Last spring, Elliot House had a fire scare. When speaking with a former resident of Elliot, she commented, “When I saw the fire trucks [at New], I was like, ‘oh my gosh it’s happening again.’” Other than the smell of smoke that lingered in New for a day or two, it seems that all is well that ends well.