Officials Still Seeking Cause Of Currier Fire

With a room that smells of a new coat of paint past a hallway that still reeks of smoke, Susanna Kirk '95-'97 is constantly reminded of last Friday night's fire in her fourth-floor Currier House single.

A psychology concentrator and creative writer, Kirk lost her "entire life's work" in the accident, including seven handwritten hard-cover manuscripts.

According to Kirk, the fire began next to her bookcase and set all of her books ablaze.

Neither Kirk nor Cambridge fire department officials have pinpointed the cause of the fire.

Inspector Lawrence Buchanan of the fire department said that the incident "is still under investigation" and that the official report will be completed tomorrow.

Shift supervisor Albert Philip of University Operations Services said that there was an "unconfirmed report" that a "lighted cigarette" started the fire.

Smoking was banned last year in all Currier House rooms.

However, Kirk maintains that she was not smoking in her room on Friday evening.

Kirk said she lit a candle while she cleaned her room earlier that evening. She said that an undoused match in the trash can could have started the fire.

Kirk said she is currently "dealing with the Ad Board" as a result of the incident.

"Whenever a fire occurs in someone's room, they have to respond. It is an offense to have anything burning in your room," she said.

She said she was grateful to her housemates and tutors for supporting her as she copes with the threat of disciplinary action and the loss of her possessions.

"Everyone in the house has been extremely helpful," she said. "I am thankful for the Currier House staff who were quick to make my room habitable again."

Kirk said she stayed with a friend for four nights while the damage was repaired. Upon returning to Gilbert 402, she borrowed bed linens to replace those destroyed in the fire.

Unbeknownst to Kirk, one of her friends, Jeffrey M. Goldfarb '97, spent a meal in the Currier Dining Hall "gathering some funds" from students to help Kirk pay for the damage.

Goldfarb said he was impressed with his housemates' response.

"Everybody has been really great," Goldfarb said. "People know her and like her. It was a heart-warming response. We really came together as a house."

Goldfarb said that he has approached 50 to 60 students for donations, and approximately 40 stu- dents have pledged an average of five dollars each.

He expects to amass a few hundred dollars by the end of his search.

A Real Fire Alarm

The fire surprised Currier residents late last Friday night.

Kirk said she was attending a jazz performance downstairs when the fire alarm went off. Then she and other Currier residents proceeded to the lobby to await further instructions.

Many Currier students said they thought the warning was a false alarm since they have heard many over the past few months.

"Every two or three weeks there's something like this," Gilbert resident Shahm M. Al-Wir '98 said. "We're not used to a real fire."

An electronic panel next to the Currier bell desk shows where the alarm has gone off.

Al-Wir said the panel often indicated the fourth floor of Gilbert--Kirk's floor--as the origin of Currier's alarms, so Friday evening didn't seem very unusual at first.

After about 15 minutes of confusion and waiting in the lobby, a fire-fighter entered and shouted, "get out of here; this is a real fire," according to Currier resident Lorena E. Duarte '98.

The assembled mass of students went outside at approximately 11:30 p.m. and were not allowed back into the building for more than an hour.

Currier residents looked on as firefighters worked to dissipate the smoke, break the window in Kirk's room, and dispose of burned papers and books

He expects to amass a few hundred dollars by the end of his search.

A Real Fire Alarm

The fire surprised Currier residents late last Friday night.

Kirk said she was attending a jazz performance downstairs when the fire alarm went off. Then she and other Currier residents proceeded to the lobby to await further instructions.

Many Currier students said they thought the warning was a false alarm since they have heard many over the past few months.

"Every two or three weeks there's something like this," Gilbert resident Shahm M. Al-Wir '98 said. "We're not used to a real fire."

An electronic panel next to the Currier bell desk shows where the alarm has gone off.

Al-Wir said the panel often indicated the fourth floor of Gilbert--Kirk's floor--as the origin of Currier's alarms, so Friday evening didn't seem very unusual at first.

After about 15 minutes of confusion and waiting in the lobby, a fire-fighter entered and shouted, "get out of here; this is a real fire," according to Currier resident Lorena E. Duarte '98.

The assembled mass of students went outside at approximately 11:30 p.m. and were not allowed back into the building for more than an hour.

Currier residents looked on as firefighters worked to dissipate the smoke, break the window in Kirk's room, and dispose of burned papers and books