Stuffed dryer blamed in UM fire Sprinkler system minimizes damage

ORONO – An overloaded dryer was the cause of a fire at a University of Maine dorm building Tuesday afternoon.

One person was treated for smoke inhalation when the contents of an overloaded dryer caught fire in the basement utility room of Hancock Hall, UM Public Safety Chief of Police Noel March said. No one else was injured and damage to the building was estimated at about $2,000.

“There was mostly smoke damage,” March said. “And water damage from fire suppression efforts.”

Fire crews had cleared the scene and students were allowed to re-enter the building by 5 p.m. Before the building was cleared, Wells Commons was opened and Memorial Union was available for students to get in out of the cold.

Jeremy Gagne, a UM student fire marshal who lives in Hancock Hall and also is a member of the Orono Fire Department, was the first to respond to the fire, March said. Gagne, who smelled the smoke before the alarms went off, emptied two fire extinguishers before Orono and Old Town fire crews arrived on the scene, Orono Fire Capt. Henry Vaughan said.

Gagne was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital and treated for smoke inhalation, Vaughan said.

This was not the first fire the dorm has seen. In May 2000, a fire was set at the dorm, sending five people to the hospital and displacing 240 students just a week before final exams.

“Fortunately in this case, we’re looking at an accidental fire,” March said.

When the 2000 fire occurred, there was no sprinkler system in the 1960s-vintage Hancock Hall and the alarms stopped sounding about five minutes into the fire due to electrical damage.

Fire codes have required sprinklers for dormitories built during the last couple of decades, but sprinklers weren’t mandatory in the older structures. State fire investigators ruled that the May 2000 fire had been intentionally set in one of the dorm’s lounge areas, causing more than $500,000 in damage.

“If it wasn’t for that sprinkler system, we would have been looking at a similar amount of fire damage in this building,” Vaughan said.

The new alarm system worked exactly as it should have, according to March. The sprinklers went off in the utility room where the dryer was located, and the alarms went off in the rest off the building.

“The system and procedure that we have in place have worked perfectly,” March said.

All the students evacuated the building and March was pleased with the cooperation between students, resident life staff and public safety officials.

March described the incident as “a textbook example of the way the system is supposed to work.”