Cushion sparks residence fire
Sofa cushion stuffed in lounge fridge causes $150,000 damage
APRIL ROBINSON THE CORD WEEKLY (WILFRID LAURIER UNIVERSITY)
PHOTO CREDIT: CANADIAN UNIVERSITY PRESS
WATERLOO, Ont. (CUP) — A couch cushion jammed into a fridge caused a fire on the sixth floor of a Wilfrid Laurier University residence Saturday morning — and was enough to cause $150,000 of damage.
At 9:00 a.m. on March 31, Waterloo firefighters responded to a call while the residence evacuated about 120 students.
“Nobody knew what was going on,” said Katelyn Black, first-year student and resident of the floor. Once the students got outside, Black said, they saw smoke coming out of the sixth-floor lounge window. Students waited on a city bus to keep warm, then went to a nearby building to wait. Many called local friends and relatives to pick them up.
Earlier Saturday morning, someone had put a cushion in the fridge in the sixth-floor lounge. The fridge door remained open and an inside light bulb ignited the cushion.
“It was jammed in so tight that it was pressing up against the light bulb,” said Marc Desjardins, chief investigator for the Waterloo Fire Department.
Desjardins said the flame was mostly contained within the refrigerator and some smoke damage occurred in the common room where the fire took place.
“The smoke damage actually wasn’t that bad in the hallways,” he said. The lounge’s fire protective door was closed, which was a “really good thing.”
The bulk of the damage was due to the building’s sprinkler system. It released thousands of gallons of water in a short period of time, running through hallways, into students’ rooms and through two floors below, said Mike Belanger, director of residence services.
Students began returning to their rooms around noon. Many had to wait until mid-afternoon.
The university has moved 12 students and two dons — whose rooms suffered significant damage — to the nearby Comfort Inn until their rooms are repaired.
The investigation has been passed on to the Waterloo Regional Police.
“The goal is to establish who might have been involved,” said Olaf Heinzel, public affairs co-ordinator for the police.
He said it has not yet been confirmed whether the person who put the cushion in the fridge was a student or not.
“We’re convinced because of the nature of the fire, and what the investigation has turned up, that this was not arson or certainly not anything intentional,” said Belanger.
“This is just some stupid activity that’s gone woefully wrong.”
He says that furniture in the affected boys’ lounge was found turned over.
Katelyn Black said that people seemed to have a party going on.
Belanger said that when and if the person is identified, they will likely be reprimanded by the dean of students or the president’s office — meaning some form of suspension.
While the university works on repairing structural damage, students are responsible for contents insurance.
Black says some of her floormates had damage to the things they had on the ground. A pair of pants was covered in “black water,” she said.
“And the sixth floor [residence manager], his papers were all over the floor for his exam,” said Horner.
King Street Residence holds 324 people, but only 120 students were there Saturday morning.
Belanger said that he has heard from a lot of angry parents. “They’re all concerned, as you’d expect.”
And a fridge would be the last place anyone would think a fire could start. Just ask fire inspector Desjardins.
“People assume a refrigerator’s cold,” he said with a laugh. “We rarely get cushions in refrigerators.”
