Fire Breaks Out in Canaday Suite

A small fire scorched portions of a Canaday Hall suite yesterday but caused no injuries or serious damage.

A team of two fire trucks rapidly extinguished the 6:10 p.m. blaze in the fourth floor suite of the dorm's B-entry. The flames in Canady B-44--which could be seen from the dorm's courtyard--came from a couch apparently ignited by fallen lamp or a faulty electrical circuit.

Fire fighters smashed the suite's living room window to heave the smoldering couch to the ground, and then doused it further and slashed it with an ax before leaving at 6:40 p.m.

Explaining the decision to throw the couch out of the fourth-floor window, a fireman said. "You can't just put a little water on one of those things and leave them sitting."

The five residents were not home during the fire, but several returned soon after to join the crowd of about 100 in the courtyard.

"I saw the fire trucks, walked to the courtyard and said. 'Look up in your window,'", window,'" said Geordie Wilson '86, who lives in the suite.

Suppertime

The fire was detected by Adam Augustynski '86, who discovered smoke in the hallway of the entry's fourth floor and called the police. "All I wanted to do was go to dinner peacefully," he said.

Augustynski immediately helped alert students in the entry. He estimated that the fire trucks came "in about a minute."

Although the blaze blackened one wall and portion of the calling Wilson said only the couch and lamp suffered damages by fire and water. "The turntable is tuning about 80 rpm, but it might dry out," he added.

Wilson and his roommates--Franklin Codel '86 Thomas J. Gill '86 John B Kessler '86 and Wayne Snodgrass '86--planned to remain in their rooms last night despite the slight damage and broken window.

The fire was the second in a Harvard dorm room in four months. Following a small blaze in Adams House in January, a University official said there had not been a fire is a dorm of administrative building in five years.

Assistant Dean of Freshman W. Burriss Young '55 said the most serious Yard fire occured about 13 years ago during what he called "the time of troubles."

"Someone apparently threw an incendiary device through the back door into a junior's closet," causing flames like "a huge butane lighter," he said.