Markley fire raises safety concerns

A small fire in Mary Markley Residence Hall forced residents to evacuate the hall early morning on Dec. 17. Some residents did not hear the fire alarm and slept while the Ann Arbor Fire Department extinguished the fire.

The fire was confined to a trash can in a closet on the fifth floor of Markley's Fisher House, said Alan Levy, Housing director of public affairs.

AAFD ruled the fire accidental and does not know how it started, AAFD Fire Marshal Scott Rayburn said.

Rayburn said he suspects the fire may have started from "someone dumping cigarette butts into the trash container."

AAFD and Department of Public Safety vehicles arrived on the scene shortly after fire alarms were pulled at 2:30 a.m. Residents were allowed back into building around 3 a.m.

When an alarm is sounded, "there is an expectation that people will evacuate," Levy said.

There were fewer students in the residence hall than usual since many had completed final exams and left for home, which may have contributed to the fact that some residents slept through the alarm. Residents may not have checked on their fellow hallmates, assuming they may had left for the break.

Sleeping through an alarm "is possible to happen," Levy said.

In many halls, some residents are designated fire marshals and are responsible is to pound on doors to make sure that everyone is evacuated.

"I was awakened by a girl running down the hall screaming 'It's for real! It's for real!'," said Music first-year student Matt Murphy, who lives a floor above the fire.

Without shoes and a shirt, Murphy proceeded out of the building to an area where students were gathering near the Ronald McDonald House on Washington Heights.

After discovering they would have to stand out in the cold for a long time, many residents wanted to return to the building because they were not properly dressed. Murphy saw many residents like himself without shirts or proper footware. Because of the cold weather, "later, someone gave me a jacket," Murphy said.

It is a violation of Housing's Community Living standards to ignore fire alarms or try to return to a building before the all-clear signal is given, Levy said.

Violations are dealt with "on a case-by-case basis," Levy said.

"I would hope that under (inclement weather) circumstances, residential staff members and security officers would make a contingency plan to walk to another building," Levy said.

If a resident is caught pulling a fire alarm as a prank their lease is terminated automatically. "It isn't a funny thing," Levy said.

The last large fire to occur in a residence hall broke out in South Quad Residence Hall on April 20, 1997. That fire, which gutted the room of Michigan football center Steve Frazier and tight end Aaron Shea, caused close to $20,000 worth of damage. An alarm clock wire running under a couch was cited as the origin of the fire.

A fire of similar size charred a room in Markley in 1995. Levy said that the origin of that fire was traced to a menorah candle.

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