Second Blaze In Four Days Hits Claverly

Claverly Hall had its second fire in a week last night when a first-floor paint closet burst into flames. The blaze lasted only for a short time. The first alarm was sounded by Herbert W. Berger '53 who smelled smoke as he entered the building at 9 p.m. last night. He ran down the rear stairway to the basement door and saw flames inside the closet.

Fire officials said that just what ignited the paint closet could be determined only on further investigation. Losses were negligible. The cause of Saturday's fire, a cigarette thrown into a third-floor closet, is still accepted "for the moment," Associate Dean Watson said last night. "I can't elaborate," he added.

Before last night's fire began, Claverly had just returned to near normalcy. Watson had reassigned some of the 14 students whose rooms were destroyed to quarters in Leverett House or to empty rooms in Claverly. "We'll do everything to make them happy," he said.

Some students' personal property, Dean Watson added, was completely insured against fire. The University, under contracts for rooms will not assume responsibility for damages to students' property incurred by fire. University officials estimated damage to the building to be about $65,000. No estimate of students' personal loss from Saturday's blaze is yet available.

BULLETIN

Cambridge police detectives worked far into the morning with fire officials and University Police Chief Alvin R. Randall in Randall's office on Dunster Street after questioning three students who discovered last night's Claverly Hall fire.

Officials talked to the students at midnight and were still meeting at 2 a.m. this morning. Captain of Detectives Patrick F. Ready, who joins investigations only when arson is suspected, questioned the students about a missing fire extinguisher. The students said they used one to quench the flames, but could not show it to officials. Randall offered no theories about how the fire started.