Some students have expressed concerns with campus fire safety following two incidents this month. On Jan. 18, a small fire in Gile Hall summoned the Hanover Fire Department at 2:10 a.m., according to fire chief Michael Gilbert. Three days later, a steam leak on the second floor of Little Hall prompted another response from the department at 11:30 p.m.
While the fire department successfully addressed both incidents, some students raised concerns regarding the College’s protocol — including the volume of its fire alarms and communications with Residential Operations over faulty heating systems.
Gile resident Alex DiCorpo ’27 said he pulled the fire alarm after hearing an “annoying beeping sound” coming from an unoccupied room. He opened the “slightly ajar door” to find smoke — caused by “a piece of clothing too close to a lightbulb [that] started to smolder and catch fire,” according to Gilbert — pouring from the other room.
“I walked past one of the doors, and I heard the alarm coming from that room,” he explained. “… I knocked on the door, got no reply, opened it up, and there was a ton of smoke in the room.”
DiCorpo said he “didn’t think” that “the beeping was a fire alarm” before opening the door, and instead thought it may have been an alarm for a door not closed completely. Now, he argues the alarms were not “loud enough.”
Similarly, fellow Gile resident Mark Chan ’27 said he “didn’t know something was serious” because the alarm system was too quiet.
“I live in a two-room double, and my room is the inside of the two,” Chan said. “From my room, the noise is just a slight nuisance. [I] didn’t think anything of it at all until about 20 minutes later when the sirens started showing up.”
Chan added that he could have been “gravely injured” if the fire had been “serious.”
“The alarm causes no alarm,” Chan said. “Anyone could easily sleep through [it], especially if they’re wearing earbuds.”
Other students, however, disagreed. While Gile resident Benjamin Goltz ’27 said he at first thought the alarm “went off and came back on again,” it was “eventually … loud and disturbing enough to wake [him] up.”
In an email statement to The Dartmouth, College spokesperson Jana Barnello wrote that Campus Services regularly checks the campus’s fire alarm system for issues.
“There are no known issues with the fire safety systems at Gile,” Barnello wrote. “Dartmouth conducts mandatory monthly, quarterly and annual compliance testing on the systems, and any issues reported by students or staff are promptly addressed.”
According to DiCorpo, Gile residents waited outside for “around 40 minutes” while the fire department cleared the building. The residence hall faced smoke damage but no fire damage or injuries, Gilbert said.
At Little Hall, a steam leak below the radiator — not a fire — set off the fire alarms, Gilbert said. Safety and Security cleared the floor, and residents returned to their rooms after 12:00 a.m. that morning.
Khang Lam ’28 — who lives in the room where the steam break occurred — said he suffered property damages.
“All of my natural fiber products were gone,” Lam said. “And most of my electronics were partially damaged because the water got inside them.”
Lam said he first noticed “a really weird smell” and realized that it was “weirdly hot in [his dorm].” He saw hot steam coming out of his radiator “within minutes” of the realization, springing him into action.
“I pulled out everything against the radiator so that the steam didn’t get trapped,” Lam said, “ … Immediately, the steam started rushing into the room.”
According to Lam, the fire alarms went off around five minutes later while he was attempting to remove belongings from the room, followed by an evacuation and response from Safety and Security. Little resident Claire Kim ’28 characterized the response from Safety and Security as “dismissive.”
“When we called Safety and Security at first, they didn’t believe us,” Kim said. “‘Oh, the fire alarm would’ve been going off, so it’s … not actually happening.’”
Safety and Security ultimately responded after 10 minutes.
Lam also criticized the College’s preventative measures. He explained that he and his roommate had reached out to Residential Operations on Jan. 5 to report the broken radiator but did not receive any diagnostic assistance. Instead, Residential Operations gave the two “a small portable heater.”
“They were very dismissive,” Lam said. “They were like, ‘We know it’s broken, but we can’t do anything about it because [the radiator]’s so old.’”
Lam, who has since moved to another room in Little Hall, added that representatives from Residential Operations have not reached out other than to offer him and his roommate a Dean’s Bed — temporary beds “set aside” on campus “for emergencies where a student cannot remain in their room,” according to Barnello.
“We never really got communication … on when we could go back and … start cleaning up after the mess,” Lam said.
Senior vice president of capital planning and campus operations Josh Keniston, director of Residential Operations Cathy Henault and the department of Safety and Security did not respond to multiple requests for comment by time of publication.
