Multiple crews responded to a fire that broke out in the E wing of O’Neil college in Mendelsohn Quad Saturday night.
The fire was called in at 7:05 p.m. and extinguished by 7:25 p.m., according to an emergency services dispatcher. The fire was contained to one room.
Fire departments from Stony Brook, Port Jefferson, Centereach, St. James and Nesconset responded to reports of heavy smoke in hallway E1 on the first floor of the building.
After extinguishing the fire, the crew set up fans to vent the smoke from the building and cleared the debris from the room where the fire broke out.
The entire building was evacuated and no injuries have been reported, as of yet.
C-CERT volunteers and RSP walkers patrolled the surrounding area and, around 9:35 p.m., they were still blocking multiple entrances and preventing anyone from entering the building, including residents.
“I was in my room watching some videos when I heard the alarm so I just came out,” Bruce Cheng, 18, a resident of O’Neil College said. “I was in the Union and just came back to check if I could get back inside. We are not allowed to go in yet.”
UPDATE:
As of 11:00 p.m. most O’Neill residents were allowed to move back into the building, but the residents of E wing were moved to other buildings.
“They told us the damage was contained to one room,” Sara Romagnoli, a 20 year-old health sciences major, said.
Romagnoli, who lived in hallway E1, was moved to Toscanini College in Tabler Quad and forced to buy “contact solution and a towel” from Target after being told she couldn’t “grab anything” from her room.
“Tomorrow at 10 a.m. residents are going to meet in the lounge” at O’Neill College and “be escorted to their room to grab their essentials,” Romagnoli said. “No clue when we’re going to be allowed to stay in our room.”
Reporting contributed by John Feinberg and Alicia Bermudez
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