Fire Guts Suite in Lowell; One Student Hospitalized

Fire gutted a first-floor suite and caused minor damage to a hallway in Lowell House early Sunday morning, injuring one student and bringing calls for improved alarm systems and evacuation procedures.

Peter H. York '74, the injured student, was admitted to Cambridge City Hospital with first- and second-degree burns on his hands and face and a lacerated right wrist. He was officially listed by the hospital in fair condition yesterday, but Dr. Andrew Grimes, a Cambridge City Hospital physician, described his status as "next to excellent."

The Lowell House fire bell system failed to function, leaving many students unaware of the blaze until they were awakened by shouts and whistles from police, firemen and other students.

The first indication of the fire came at 2:04 a.m., when an automatic central monitoring system at the Science Center signalled an electrical malfunction at Lowell House.

Stephen S.J. Hall, vice president for administration, said yesterday that the signal came when the fire melted wires in the Lowell House fire bell system, causing a short circuit. Two minutes later a heat detector was triggered, Hall said, alerting police and fire departments to the blaze.

Because the bell system had already short circuited, however, the alarms failed to sound in Lowell House, Hall said.

The Cambridge Fire Marshall's Office is investigating the origin of the blaze. No official report has been released, but spokesmen for both the Harvard police and the fire department speculated yesterday that a lit cigarette discarded in York's closet caused the fire.

Police reported that York woke to flames, found the door to his room blocked, and attempted to exit by the window. Because the lower half of first-floor windows on the street side of Lowell House are barred, York broke through the top half of his window with his fist and escaped to the street. He lacerated his wrist in the process.

About 30 firemen brought the blaze under control within an hour, confining most of the damage to York's O-entry room.

Some third-floor residents found their exit blocked by heavy smoke in the entry. David R. Fine '75 said yesterday he was "overwhelmed by smoke" as he descended the stairs, and was forced to return to his room and jump to fire nets below.

Kenneth H. Levison, senior tutor of Lowell House, said yesterday that he and other Lowell residents were "all extremely frustrated and perplexed" by the failure of the fire alarm system to operate properly.

"I would think that the administration could come up with a system that would function when there's a fire," he said. "We're very lucky that nobody was killed."

Levison said that no first floor rooms at Lowell have fire door exits, because "the windows are thought to be the second method of egress."

But in addition to the gratings on those windows facing the street, Levison said, "some have been painted shut and haven't been fixed."

Levison said neither he nor Zeph Stewart, master of Lowell House, were notified that a fire was in progress. "There is something wrong with the priority of who was contacted," Levison said, adding that he awoke because he heard noise in the courtyard.

Several students said at the scene that they had manually pulled fire alarms in the House, but nothing had happened.

Hall said yesterday, however, that although he was disturbed by the failure of the bells, he was "happy with the way [the system] performed," adding that at the control center, "everything worked exactly right."

He said it was the "strangest kind of even that could happen" for a fire to begin in a closet, disabling the bell system before triggering a heat detector.

But Hall added that his office would consider attaching a backup alarm to the system at the Houses, to sound if the fire bells malfunction