SOUTH FAYERWEATHER FIRE

Shortly after two o'clock Saturday morning, February 26, South Fayerweather was gutted by one of the worst fires in Dartmouth's history. The time of the night, the zero weather, and the rapidity with which the flames gripped the interior structure of the building gave to the fire a most dangerous character, and not until an investigation Saturday morning revealed the fact that all the occupants had escaped with their lives, could the College feel any degree of ease. With a few exceptions, the residents of the building lost everything. The building was damaged to an extent in excess of $35,000, part of which is covered by $20,000 worth of insurance.

The incidents leading up to the discovery of the fire and the giving of the alarm were as followsC. E. Rice '10 returned from Boston on the midnight train. Reaching the dormitory he noted nothing out of the ordinary, and retired. He had hardly fallen asleep when he was aroused by a sound he at first took to be the rushing of the wind. The smell of smoke, however, alarmed him, and upon rising to investigate, he discovered that the ground floor hall was partially in flames, while the remainder of the building was fast filling with smoke. Arousing F. H. Harris '11, he dashed out to ring the alarm, while Harris attempted to arouse the dormitory. Rice's shouts brought to the scene at once many of the men in nearby dormitories, who were still up, and this group got out the hose from middle Fayerweather, and attempted to save the stairs in the doomed building, but without avail.

of the local department responded.

The task of arousing and getting from the burning building the fifty-five men therein was exceedingly difficult. Several men deserve special recognition for their activity in this respect. Herbert Coar '10 was the first man on the top floor to become aware of the danger. He aroused his roommates, who were able to make their way out by the railing of the stairs. The smoke was so thick that though arm in arm, they could not see each other. Coar then jumped into a third-story window, and yelled until he aroused the rest of the two upper, stories. The stairway had collapsed in the meantime, and the men had to make exit by jumping to the entrance roof, and thence to the ground. Other men caught in the building by the destruction of the stairs made escape by two-story jumps into snowdrifts, or by descent on sheet-ropes from the third story. With a couple of exceptions none of the men had time to add any clothing to their night attire.

By the time the fire department arrived, the flames were pouring from basement to roof in a roaring torrent. Nothing could have then saved the building. The additional drafts created by open doors and windows sucked the flames into every room, and thirty minutes after the alarm had sounded, the whole interior was a torrent of flame.

The cause of the fire is unknown. The fact that it started in the janitor's closet dismisses the usual and plausible tendency to attribute it to the negligence of a tobacco-using student body. The wellknown caution and care always exercised by Janitor "Joe" Ellis makes the cause even more of a mystery. To further complicate the matter, the caretaker who turned off the steam in the closet just prior to midnight, and was the last person to enter the closet, stated he saw no evidences of fire, and the night watchman who left the building between 1.30 and 2 a.m., reported the same. Defective wiringwas the popular presumption among the student body—a possibility Superintendent Hunter thought unlikely on the ground that the fuses and connections were not located near the source of the fire.

South Fayerweather was opened in 1907. Its original cost was $35,000. Its location and modern conveniences, as well as its admirable construction, made it one of the most popular "dorms" on the campus. While not of fireproof construction to the extent that New Hampshire is—its structure was presumed to be less combustible than it proved. The building was built originally by the College without outside aid, and will probably be at once rebuilt without appeal to the alumni or other sources.