Don't Play With Fire (Extinguishers)

At about 1:30 a.m. yesterday morning, residents of New Quincy were jarred from their sleep—or from their Saturday night partying—by the blaring of a fire alarm.

Christine M. Baugh '10, who lives on the sixth floor of New Quincy, opened her door and said she found that "everything was white.”

“The air was white. You couldn't see very far in front of your face,” she said. “It didn't smell like smoke. Nothing was warm. It was just very, very white."

As startled occupants of the building made their way outside, word began to spread: There was no fire. Rather, someone had emptied a fire extinguisher in the hallway of New Quincy's sixth floor.

Some of the students crashed in a friend's room for the night. Those who waited—first outdoors and then in the Junior Common Room—were allowed back to the sixth floor by 4 a.m.

Quincy House Master Lee Gehrke sent an e-mail to students yesterday morning stating that all dust in the hallway had been cleared away but that the removal of remaining dust in students' rooms was their responsibility.

"The smoke—or whatever it was—came into everyone's rooms," Baugh said. "We're doing our best to clean it up."

The dust, monoaluminum phosphate, is not toxic, but Quincy House Allston Burr Resident Dean Judith F. Chapman said that it might pose a problem for two students with asthma who she said live on the floor.

"I suggested that one of them sleep in the infirmary tonight," Chapman said, adding that it might be necessary for the students to sleep in unoccupied rooms elsewhere on campus until the dust is completely eliminated from New Quincy.

Chapman said that the fire extinguisher was not released accidentally, since the entire content of the canister was expelled into the hallway. She said she has not heard any information from students about who might have triggered the extinguisher but added that she hopes to "be able to hold them accountable."

The Administrative Board's suggested punishment for tampering with fire safety equipment, Chapman said, is disciplinary probation. She said she has seen three such cases, none of them in Quincy, in her five years as a resident dean.

"If they catch him or her, they should make them clean up all the rooms," opined Kirkland resident Gil S. Weintraub '10.

Quincy resident Marcelo Cerullo '10 said he had heard a rumor that someone set off the fire extinguisher in order to break up a fight in the hallway.

Chapman said that since the perpetrator was "probably a guest of someone hosting one of the parties" held in New Quincy last night, she has suggested to the House Masters that no registered parties be allowed in the House "for a while, until someone takes responsibility for it."

Gehrke's e-mail, which described the incident as "a very serious and malicious act," said that the Cambridge Fire Department called the mess "the worst they have ever seen."

Gehrke wrote that the cost of the cleanup, which is substantial but undetermined, will likely fall to the House and may cause Quincy to cut some social activities from its already strained budget.

"I'm angry, I'm angry, I'm angry," said Chapman. "It's so destructive to the community. Maybe it was ignorance. Now everyone who reads The Crimson will know: Don't play with the fire extinguisher."

Photo courtesy of Dmsar/Wikimedia Commons.