Students react quickly to fire

Possible Pullout quote:”We touched the window, and it was red hot,” Gibbs said. “We started calling Troy’s name, and we heard him screaming for help. Maurice took one arm and I took the other one, and we pulled him out.”

An Abbott Hall resident pulled from his burning room by fellow students remains hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit. Authorities believe the early morning fire was caused by arson, and detectives at SIUC’s Department of Public Safety are questioning a suspect who does not live on campus.

Advertisement

The fire began at 3:07 a.m. Wednesday in Room 119 of Abbott Hall in Thompson Point. Troy Mobley, a junior in accounting, is the only resident of the room.

Mobley was taken by ambulance to Memorial Hospital of Carbondale, 405 W. Jackson St., and treated for smoke inhalation. A Memorial Hospital of Carbondale representative said Mobley is in ICU and is doing “fine,” but would not comment any further.

The other 111 students in the all-male residence hall escaped without injuries. Students on the second and third floors were permitted back into their rooms around 4:30 a.m., University officials said, but students on the first floor did not return until after 6 a.m. Students were allowed to stay at Lentz Dining Hall until they returned to their rooms.

David Keim, assistant fire chief, said the smoke detectors and a pull station were activated.

Sue Davis, University spokeswoman, said Mobley had a disability that affected his arm and leg.

In Thompson Point, the end rooms on the first floor are usually reserved for students with disabilities.

The end rooms of Abbott Hall are divided into three parts. There are two bedroom-sized rooms conjoined by a hallway with a bathroom, sink, shower and closets. Keim said the fire started in the front part of the room where a bed and desk were located. He said the fire did not spread through the entire room, but heat and smoke damaged most of the dorm room.

Advertisement*

“They transported [Mobley] from an ambulance immediately,” Keim said, “and as far as I know, they’re going to keep him. I know it was pretty serious.”

Davis said one University police officer was treated for smoke inhalation and released.

Beth Scally, University housing coordinator, said she believes the fire was set intentionally but does not believe the student was a particular target.

“I don’t think the students need to be in fear that this will happen again,” she said. “As far as my understanding, it wasn’t targeted as anything towards anyone.”

Bernard Beauford, a freshman in graphic design from Chicago, was sitting in the hallway when he and his friends saw smoke coming from the room.

“I knocked on the door, then the [resident assistant] came and opened the door,” Beauford said. “I tried to go through the front door, but the smoke just blasted me out.”

Love Tate, a junior in management from Chicago, awoke to the sound of the fire alarms.

“The alarm went off initially, and a resident was running through the halls telling everybody, ‘Get up,'” Tate said. “The way that the fire alarm system is hooked up to the fire department is so when the alarms go off, the fire department comes. I didn’t have to place a phone call. There’s not really enough time for that anyways.”

Marty Gibbs, a freshman in creative writing and secondary education from Morton Grove, said he and another student ran outside to find where the fire was coming from.

“We touched the window, and it was red hot,” Gibbs said. “We started calling Troy’s name, and we heard him screaming for help. Maurice took one arm and I took the other one, and we pulled him out.”

Maurice Sanders, a freshman in art from Chicago, called the police and ran outside with Gibbs.

“By that time I heard Troy yelling, ‘Help,’ so I ran around to the back,” Sanders said. “By that time he got the screen part of the window open, and I helped pull the glass part out, and he was trying to come out so I just helped pull him the rest of the way out.”

Keith McMath, coordinator of resident life, said the students have been supportive of Mobley.

“Everybody on that floor were friends, and they all knew each other,” McMath said. “I believe the residents are very strong, and they will do just fine handing such a situation. A fire is never a fun thing.”

Tate said earlier this semester, Mobley’s roommate died.

“This is the second tragic situation that we had because we had the death of Nick Story to begin the year with, and it happened to be in the same room he lived in,” Tate said.

Nick Story died Sept. 17 from complications with muscular dystrophy.

Gibbs said he knew Story well, as he does Mobley.

“It was hard on all of us,” Gibbs said. “We all knew him. He was one of our friends. We just hope Troy gets better.”

Scally said the students evacuated Abbott within two minutes.

“The students did an incredible job,” Scally said. “Things just worked perfectly for a bad situation as far as the students doing what they’re supposed to do, the fire alarm system activating immediately. Out of a bad situation, it’s the best we can hope for.”

After the fire was extinguished, the locks on the door were changed, the door sealed and the windows were boarded up. McMath said the room would stay that way until the investigation is over.

“If he gets released and his room is not ready, we will make other accommodations for him,” McMath said. “At this time, because there is an ongoing investigation, he won’t be able to access his room until the investigating team from the fire department as well as the police department authorize it.”

The total cost of the damage is not yet known, McMath said.

“The investigating team is still doing what they need to do in the room, so we can’t even get our housekeeping team and our maintenance team in there to begin assessing the damage and how bad it is,” McMath said.