As students move back onto campus, housing officials have assured them that the necessary provisions have been made to ensure their safety within residence halls.
Following a fire in 229 Ehringhaus Residence Hall on April 15, University officials spent the summer going through all the high-rise residence halls looking for similar electrical problems.
“The whole suite has been totally redone,” said Larry Hicks, associate director of the Department of Housing and Residential Education, of the Ehringhaus suite. “Everything seems to have checked out well.”
Some of the furnishings taken out of Morrison Residence Hall were used to refurbish the rooms, Hicks said. “We returned the suite back to the way it was prior to the fire.”
Hicks said he is still waiting for the residents of the rooms to provide a list of damaged properties that were not covered by insurance. Once the list is received, officials can begin the process of determining whether the University will cover any remaining damages.
“This was a really strange thing,” Hicks said. “It was something that we didn’t catch until it came upon us. It was an unusual occurrence that we found.”
Officials pointed toward a problem in the wiring system in an adjacent suite as the initial cause for the April fire.
A loose piece of equipment caused power on the line to 229 Ehringhaus to increase.
Hicks said problems such as these can be avoided if students are cautious.
