Campus Safety and Security (CSS) officers and the Williamstown Fire Department extinguished a small fire in a dorm room on the second floor of Armstrong in Mission Park on Thursday, Feb. 29. The fire, caused by a cord left under a pile of clothes, damaged only the carpet of the dorm room, which has since been replaced by Facilities, Director for Emergency Management Amalio Jusino wrote in an email to the Record.

According to Jusino, CSS received notice of a fire alarm at 10:04 a.m., and Safety Patrol Supervisor David Bartels arrived at Armstrong shortly after. The fire was contained to a single dorm room, which was unoccupied when Bartels arrived, Jusino said. Bartels partially put out the fire with a fire extinguisher, closed the door of the dorm room, and then helped facilitate the evacuation of the building.

The Williamstown Fire Department received a call from CSS about the fire at 10:09 a.m., Fire Chief Craig Pedercini told the Record. Two fire officers were already on campus at the time of the call. One went to the Town’s fire station to get a fire engine while the other, Assistant Chief ​​Richard Daniels, went directly to Armstrong to attend to the fire.

When Daniels arrived to the Armstrong dorm room, he found a pile of smoking clothes, which he extinguished by filling a coffee carafe he found in a nearby common room with water and pouring it onto the remaining smolders, Pedercini said.

During the fire response, evacuated students were directed to Paresky Center to stay warm. By noon, students were permitted to re-enter Armstrong.

Officials at the College reassigned the occupant of the affected dorm room to another room while a professional company cleaned and deodorized the area, and Facilities replaced the part of the carpet impacted by the fire. The nearby common room was closed during this process but has since reopened, Jusino said.

According to Pedercini, the fire was caused by a student’s cord charger — which the student said had not worked for the last few days — that was left under a pile of clothing in the student’s dorm room. Pedercini added that he believes the cord shorted, though he is continuing to research other explanations for the fire.