A small fire broke out in the basement laundry room of Hokona Hall late Friday morning, damaging at least one dryer and causing smoke to circulate throughout the building.
Dorm residents and staff evacuated the building, and no one was injured, said Kerry Horton, Albuquerque Fire Department battalion commander.
“It looks like (the dryer) probably just overheated,” he said. “The fire was confined to the dryer. It looks like a big smoke event, because the ventilation system took it everywhere.”
Residents were not allowed back into the dorm until 2 p.m. because of the danger of smoke inhalation.
All of the residents and staff members in the building were evacuated at the time of the fire, Horton said.
“Personnel and property representatives were good about getting everybody evacuated and stuff like that,” he said. “That’s a big help for us.”
Teresa Ortiz, a Residence Life coordinator, said Hokona Hall had a fire drill on Wednesday, which helped everyone exit the building safely.
“We do train our staff the very best we can every year, and they followed the procedure like we wanted them to,” she said. “I’m glad it was during the day when a lot of kids were already in class, so it helped not being in the middle of the night.”
Freshman Jocelyn Rowse had just stepped out of the building when the fire started. Her clothes were still in the washer.
Sophomore Stephanie Hunter lived in the single room directly above the laundry room. She said she threw out her rug and chair because of smoke and soot damage, and she was moved to a single-occupancy room across the Hokona courtyard.
“There was a layer of soot over everything,” she said. “It was a really thin layer, and I didn’t really notice it until I sat down and tried to type on my computer … and I lifted my fingers up and my fingers were black.”
Hunter said a cleaning crew scrubbed the walls, and she took her wardrobe to a self-service laundry. She said she knows of at least two Hokona residents who lost loads of laundry in the fire.
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“I know there were two girls on the first floor … they lost their clothes in the washers,” she said. “I don’t think they’re getting them back.”
Rowse said the equipment in the laundry room is often in disrepair.
“All year, half of (the washers) have been broken, and when they’re all working, the dryers don’t work,” she said. “I think that’s very irresponsible of the University to have things that are going to catch fire.”
Bobby Childers, Residence Life and Student Housing public affairs representative, said his department is going through the Risk Management Department to reimburse students for their losses.
He said RLSH doesn’t have an exact estimate of the losses, but he expects they were relatively small.
“Basically what happens in all instances of these kinds of emergencies is students are reimbursed for items that they lose,” he said. “We really don’t (have a number) at this time. We understand that it was very minimal.”
