Laurel Hall Laundry Fire:Second Fire This Semester

The laundry room in Laurel Hall after the fire Photo Courtesy / Jacqueline Herbert The laundry room in Laurel Hall after the fire Photo Courtesy / Jacqueline Herbert

By Charlese Freeman
Staff Writer

Around 7:00 p.m., on Sunday evening, a crowd of ESU students gathered outside of Laurel Residence Hall for what was thought to be a mock fire drill, but it was no drill.

Apparently, while in the dryer, a student’s laundry had caught fire.

“They had all spring break to check their equipment; it happens, but they should be more on top of things.” said Emily Colabufo, a student and resident of Laurel Hall.

This brings up a sensitive topic about renovations being made to some of the older residence hall such as Shawnee Hall, the oldest resident hall on campus.

There was also a fire earlier in the semester at the University Ridge Apartments.

Fortunately, no one was hurt, but there was some major water damage done to building 9 and smoke damage to building 10 of the Ridge.

112 students were directly affected by that fire.

In fact, the Fire Marshal was on the scene to conduct an investigation to determine the cause of the fire according to the official ESU Email: Warrior Notes.

ESU is located only 2 minutes from The East Stroudsburg Fire Station, 4 minutes away from the Stroudsburg Borough Fire House and 11 minutes away from Shawnee Fire Company. Clearly, emergency service accessibility is not a problem.

However, some students are still asking why there have been so many fires on campus this semester?

“It’s weird and inconvenient for the people who live here,” Taylor Bess, a desk receptionist at Laurel Residence Hall, said of the number of fires that have taken place on campus this semester.

Additionally, students brought up the email they received about Dansbury that said “Dansbury Commons is currently closed due to unforeseen circumstances. Effective immediately, all meals on campus will be served from the food court inside of the University Center until further notice. For those who have meal plans, please bring your dining cards with you. We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you in advance for your cooperation.”

Many students suspected that Dansbury was closed due to a kitchen fire.

Thankfully, in these few cases no one was injured. However, the students in Laurel are much more fortunate than the students in the University Ridge. Some of the Ridge students are still being affected by the damaging fire.

The residence hall have active fire drills and functioning smoke detectors.

Laurel’s laundry room after the fire. Photo Credit / Jacqueline Herbert
Laurel’s laundry room after the fire.
Photo Credit / Jacqueline Herbert

The Environmental Health and Safety provides policies and procedures, safety forms, emergency procedures and Material Safety Data sheet (MSDS) on the ESU website.

The next day following the fire, students were back to usual, running back and forth to and from class.

According to students who live in other residence halls, most students feel safe on campus regardless of the strange outbreak of fires.

However, Briana Graves, a student whom lives in Shawnee Residence hall, said she did not feel safe because “to me it seems like all the traditional hall are experiencing issues like this and I have this feeling that it could happen to my hall too.

She continued, ?Renovation is the best idea for every hall and hopefully this has caught the school’s attention.?

Although Laurel will be closed next semester for renovation.

When asked, many students that live in other halls said that renovation and a renewal of requirement would be best to prevent equipment-based fires from happening and causing an extensive amount of damage.

Email Charlese at:
cfreeman2@live.esu.edu