Last week, Georgetown released its annual reports summing up crime and fire safety issues on its various campuses. These reports, which were posted on the Georgetown Safety and Environmental Management website, include lengthy summaries of campus procedures and safety policies, before getting to a series of charts which sum up how 2010 compares to previous years in terms of fire preparedness, actual fires, and criminal activity.

According to the Fire Safety Report, 2010 witnessed three fires in Main Campus residence halls—one case of “overcooked food” (and cardboard) in Harbin and trash can fires in Darnall and Reynolds. Although this was an increase in quantity from 2009, it was a significant decrease in size and damages, as 2009′s singular incident was the December New South fire which resulted in, according to the report, over $250,000 worth of damages.

Perhaps of more interest, however, are the statistics included in the report about the function of the University’s fire alert systems. This issue was brought into focus in October of 2010, when the failure of the “audible portion” of Harbin’s fire alarms hindered the building’s evacuation during Georgetown’s most famous drug bust. Apparently the University made good on its promise to check the systems, because, according to the report, every residence hall has functioning “audible evacuation alarms.”

The report also included a section outlining the University’s plans for future fire safety improvements. These include “Building-specific Occupant Emergency Plans” for dorms, and the development of an online system for reporting fires and hazards.

Read about crime after the jump!

Read the rest of this entry »

At around 12:30 p.m., a fire broke out behind Hook restaurant on the 3200 block of M Street. Smoke poured out into the street, causing damage to nearby Saloun and Tackle Box.

Firetrucks arrived on the scene fifteen minutes later, closing off the block while they tried to fight the blaze. According to D.C. Fire & EMS spokesman Pete Piringer, nearly 100 firefighters responded to the emergency. The fire was largely extinguished by 1:00 p.m.

All employees and patrons were successfully evacuated, according to Hook and Tackle Box spokeswoman Dannia Hakki. Hook suffered severe damage, and both restaurants will remained closed for the next couple of days.

h/t Georgetown Patch, Photo by Lauren Sausser

This afternoon at approximately 2:45 p.m., the D.C. Fire Department responded to a fire on the exterior of the 1789 bakery on 36th Street.

Read the rest of this entry »

Mark it down: Georgetown’s public library will reopen on October 18th.

The renovations to the building, which was destroyed by an April 2007 fire, have been ongoing since Spring 2008. But first, book-lovers will have to survive without a public library for a few weeks; Georgetown’s interim public library, located on M Street next to Qdoba, will close on September 25th.

Located at 3260 R Street, the library will houses the Peabody Reading Room, which is scheduled to show a special collection of books and documents printed in Georgetown during the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

According to Georgetown Patch, the library will “boast restored woodwork throughout the building.”

Let’s just avoid bringing any heat guns around that woodwork, just to be safe.

For more than a year, rumors suggested that Georgetown Public Library would re-open in Fall 2010. Now, that target date is a bit more specific.

According to a D.C. Public Library representative who contacted Georgetown Metropolitan, the library plans to officially open its doors in October. The re-opening is quite the accomplishment, considering that after a three-alarm fire destroyed the building in May 2007, reconstruction efforts were wrought with legal tussles and finger-pointing.

The fire, which was allegedly caused by heat guns, led to a $13 million lawsuit brought by the D.C. government against a Dynamic Corp., a construction company contracted to work in the library. After the city blamed Dynamic Corp., the company turned around and contested the suit, claiming that the D.C. Fire Department botched the investigation.

Luckily, the lawsuit didn’t ultimately derail the reconstruction process. GM has the rundown of the library’s renovated look, but personally, we’re just happy to see it re-open. (Have you ever seen the library’s DVD collection? It’s a hidden gem, we swear!)

We’ll admit it—we love spotting Jack the Bulldog riding around campus in a golf cart with his buddy, Fr. Christopher Steck. For a short time this week, however, it looked like Jack lost his cart privileges.

“Bad news for Jack: he’s going to have to use his paws to get around campus. No more use of the Jesuit golf cart,” Steck wrote in a Twitter message last Saturday.

The Jesuit Community decided to “limit use of its golf carts to Jesuits” after one cart set on fire while students used it. Steck told us in an email that the incident, which occurred “a couple of months ago,” raised liability concerns that led to the stricter policy.

Read the rest of this entry »

Fire, the specter that has haunted Georgetown’s campus all year, broke out this weekend at the house of George Washington University sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma. In a rare turn of events, however, there actually was a fire this time.

Figures. Of course another D.C. school would try to show us up.

Deputy Fire Chief Timothy Gerhart told GWU’s The Hatchet that the fire started in one room of the house. Papers and books caught fire, but the flame was so small that the overheard sprinklers were not triggered. Firefighters threw the burning materials from the room through a broken window and quickly contained the fire.

As of now it is uncertain what caused the fire, but the remaining occupant of the room, who will stay with friends for the remainder of the year, claimed not to be home at the time it started. (However, some gossips on Twitter were quick to theorize about its cause.)

D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services spokesman Pete Piringer reported that the damage could cost up to a few thousand dollars, an estimate that includes a broken window, water damage, and fire damage. Sounds familiar …

Photo by the GW Hatchet.

Georgetown might want to seriously consider building a firehouse on-campus because the DC Fire Department paid yet another visit to the University today. At approximately 2:25 p.m., DC Fire and EMS responded to a smoke alarm on the second floor of Village C East.  After the DCFD showed up with approximately ten vehicles in tow, it was discovered that there was in fact no fire.

Sergeant Nate Blackmon of the DCFD stated that there was “no danger” to anyone in Village C.  He said that a call came in, allegedly reporting smoke in the Village C basement.

Dino Davis, a supervisor for Midwest Machinery Company, told Vox that he and his crew were working in the basement of Village C East at the time the DCFD arrived on-campus. “We were just working cutting a chiller, just normal demolition work,” Davis said.

Davis also claimed that DCFD had granted approval to the Midwest Machinery Company for the construction work.  He added that he and his crew did not see anything out of the usual during the construction work. Although Davis was not aware what had happened when the DCFD showed up, he suggested that someone upstairs must have called in a report of smoke.

All things considered, Vox commends whoever called in the smoke alert. After all, we’ve had more than our fair share of fires on-campus this year.

Photo by Geoffrey Bible

On Wednesday night, a fire broke out in the eighth floor common room of Harbin Hall.

According to Lt. Reynolds of the D.C. Fire Department, the fire began in the oven when someone tried to heat up a pizza without taking it out of the box.

Around 6:45 p.m., Harbin Hall was immediately evacuated and the D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services responded to the scene.

“I was watching TV in my room when the alarm went off. I actually thought it was part of what I was watching,” said Kerry Ryan (COL ’13). “I heard people saying that it smelled in their common room.”

Students gathered outside and waited on the patio as a DPS officer guarded the entrance. At around 7:10 p.m., residents were allowed to return.

Photo by Jackson Perry.

Updated at 4:57 a.m.

Updated at 11:45 a.m. with information from Deputy Fire Chief Kenneth Crosswhite.

Update at 1:52 p.m.: Georgetown Senior Vice President Spiros Dimolitsas wrote in an e-mail to the student body that the two workers who were burned are in stable condition. Two DPS officers also suffered from smoke inhalation, he said, and were treated and released early this morning. The equipment that started the fire was a floor stripper.

—

A fire broke out early Thursday morning in 221 New North when two maintenance workers contracted by Georgetown University were working with chemicals. Their cleaning tools overheated the chemicals and started the fire, according to D.C. Fire Department personnel. The Fire Department responded to the fire—which, according to Sergeant Nate Blackmon, was contained to the one room—after the fire had already been contained by the sprinkler system, Deputy Fire Chief Gerhart said.

Blackmon told Voice reporters that the two victims were transported to the Georgetown University Hospital for burns to their arms and faces. Deputy Fire Chief Kenneth Crosswhite said that they were in critical condition when they arrived at the MedStar Burn Center.

Crosswhite said that the first call came in about the fire at 2:43 a.m. At least a dozen fire trucks, ambulances, and other emergency vehicles initially responded to the scene.

“The sprinkler system kept the fire in check, but Engine Five extinguished the remaining fire. They just came in to put out what—if any—remaining fire was left,” Crosswhite said.

The cause of the fire was not known until hours after the fire. Shortly after the fire was contained, Gerhart told a Voice reporter, “Basically, we’re waiting to find out from the victims what they know about the causes of the fire.”

Voice reporters who accessed the building said there was flooding on the first and second floors and water and plaster are falling from the ceiling of the first floor. The office where the fire started belongs to Professor James Mattingly. The second floor of New North mostly houses the Philosophy Department.

Alex George and Brandon Butterworth, both Georgetown students, said that they saw a man being taken out on a stretcher around 2:55 a.m., clutching his arm.

Chris Heller and Kara Brandeisky contributed reporting. Photos by Keaton Bedell, Chris Heller, and Eric Pilch.

Based on information from several Fire Department respondents at the scene, we incorrectly reported that the call for the fire came in at 2:10 a.m. The call was made at 2:43 a.m.