Firefighters have extinguished a fire that broke out in Douglass College Thursday night.
At 9:54 p.m., the SBU Emergency Management Twitter account tweeted that the fire had been extinguished and that there were no injuries. Although there is no present danger, they are asking that students avoid the area.
Fire in a suite in Tabler Quad (Douglas College). Fire is out. No injuries or danger. Please avoid the area.
— SBU Division of Enterprise Risk Management (@sbu_erm) February 2, 2018
Assistant Chief of Patrol for the University Police Department, Eric Olsen, provided the following statement via email. “The university police, fire marshals and local fire departments responded to a fire in Douglass College. The building has been evacuated, the fire has been extinguished and there are no injuries reported at this time. The cause of the fire is unknown at this time as well.”
According to several eyewitness accounts, authorities closed off Tabler Drive, preventing students from entering the quad.
Shortly after evacuating the building, Douglass residents were ushered into the black box theater at the Tabler Arts Center. Catherine Duffy, Associate Director of Student Support and Jeffery Barnett, Director of Residential Assistants, told the students that the fire burned for a half hour before being put out, but that the building was still filled with smoke. They also stated that students living in the B wing, where the fire started, would be moved into West Apartments for the next two to three days.
Sophomore biology major and Douglass resident Thomas Sanford said he first heard the fire alarm go off around 8 p.m. “The RHD realizes it’s a real fire so he gets out barefoot and starts telling people to get back,” he said.
“We were going down the stairs and they opened the door for the first floor, and there was a lot of smoke coming out,” freshman mechanical engineering major and Douglass resident Mark Peniera said.
Brianne Ledda and Kenneth Fermin contributed reporting.
A previous version of this article misspelled Douglass.
