Flames posed no harm to residents

By Elisa Visotski 

As sophomore Jamie Bellah sat at her computer in Margaret Nance Saturday, she began to smell smoke. 

“I initially thought it was my computer overheating so I turned it off,” said Bellah, a theater performance major. “When I continued to smell smoke, I checked the kitchen.” After Bellah realized no one was cooking in the kitchen, she became curious and decided to check outside. That was when she saw “billows of smoke rising from Bancroft.” 

Bellah and her roommate, Amanda Mayer, sophomore English major, were not afraid that the fire would affect them. 

“One really funny thing: no one was really panicking,” Bellah said. “Everyone seemed really calm about the fire.” 

“The only time I got a little scared was when I looked out the window and saw an actual glow from the fire,” said Mayer. “From the fire drills, I knew that if there were any fires (in Margret Nance) the alarms would be loud enough to wake us up.” 

Throughout the night, Bellah and Mayer felt confident in the work of the firefighters and other safety officials. 

“We figured that they had it covered,” Mayer said. 

Both Bellah and Mayer were able to sleep through the night. The only disturbance was a low hum coming from the water hitting the roof of Owens. It wasn’t any different from being kept up by noisy girls running through the hallways on a typical night, Bellah said. The flames didn’t last that long, Bellah and Mayer said. Also, as soon as they closed their window the smoke was not overbearing. 

Kaitlyn Schallhorn also contributed to this article