Fire breaks out in Dodge; Miller evacuated

A fire broke out in the print center of Dodge Hall on Sunday night, evacuating Dodge Fitness Center and Miller Theatre just after a sold-out concert to benefit disaster relief efforts in Japan.

Students in the lab where the fire started said that it was caused by someone working with plexiglass on a laser-cutting machine, which sparked.

A woman who identified herself as a former student and the one who started the fire said that she wasn't able to control the flames, despite using two fire extinguishers.

"I was checking on it, and there was fire in the machine. I tried to exhaust it, it didn't work. I don't know whether to keep the door open or closed. I called the police, then I tried again," she said.

Deidre Fuchs, an assistant director of Public Safety, said that no one was hurt in the fire or evacuation. She estimated that the alarms went off first at 10:40 p.m., after Miller Theatre had emptied out at around 10:35. Five FDNY fire trucks were along Broadway moments afterward.

Photography and printmaking students were in the print lab when the fire started.

"I was just drying some prints when I heard a scream, 'fire!' I saw smoke in the printmaking studio … Three minutes later, Public Safety asks us to leave," Dupy Mercier, CC '12, said.

Cathy Chen, CC '11, said she was in the photography room and was told to leave so quickly she initially left her coat behind. "We just smelled something and they told us to evacuate," she said.

A Public Safety officer who had gone into the lab called the smell of the area "horrible," and added that the students followed protocol once the fire had started. "After two fire extinguishers, you call ... They did the right thing, hit the fire panel, and FDNY was here extremely quickly."

Alarms also went off in Dodge Fitness Center, leaving about 35 people waiting outside for the go-ahead to get their belongings.

Marilyn Robb, CC '13, said that there were blue lights flashing and a buzzing sound in the gym just after 10:30.

"The alarm went on for like a minute but nobody was leaving," she said. "Then someone from the staff said this was a real alarm and had us all leave."

The concert in Miller Theatre featured Yoko Ono and Sonic Youth, but Fuchs said it happened long enough after the concert was over that it mainly inconvenienced backstage staff.

Dodge Hall contains Miller Theatre and is also home to the School of the Arts, including the LeRoy Neiman Center for Print Studies.

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