Photo credit: Eneida Bermudez
Parkview East, a housing building at FIU, had a small kitchen fire in one of its housing units on Tuesday, May 24 around 10:30 p.m. According to a mass email sent out by FIU’s External Relations, the fire was immediately extinguished by the building’s sprinkler system and no one was reported to be injured in the incident.
Some damage to the building has been reported and has left approximately 42 students affected and 25 who were temporarily moved to another space. Housing and Facilities personnel worked on removing the water within the affected rooms and allowed students to return to their dorms, once it had been inspected.
“Rooms ending in ‘03’ and ‘04’ from floors 2-5 had the most water in them,” wrote Joe Paulick, director of housing in an email sent to Student Media. “There are 10 students living in units ending in ‘02’ that were in bedroom A and B. Those had very little water.”
“Students took the [temporary] room, went home, or stayed with friends,” said Paulick. “We also have been notified [that] a couple [of] students were out of town or on vacation. We are communicating with all the students living in the affected rooms by email. A text is also going out [for them] to check their email.”
However, most students returned to their housing units within hours of the incident. The External Relations division stated that FIU will be assessing the damage and beginning repairs within a few days. Students can expect updates on the status of the issue from the Housing Office at FIU.
If a similar incident were to take place during the fall or spring semester, FIU has prepared different protocols based on the situation. According to Paulick, FIU would evacuate students and locate those affected throughout the lounges in the residence halls for smaller incidents.
Bigger incidents that affect a few amount of students would be located in emergency rooms within the housing buildings. Bigger incidents that affect a large amount of students would be transported to hotels that have made agreements with FIU.
Even though FIU provides students with different alternatives, students also find assistance elsewhere. “Many times students will go stay with friends or go home,” said Paulick. “[However], it is amazing how quick the restoration companies get the rooms back in service.”
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