Hanover
“The fire investigation has determined that the cause of the fire was from students using a small hibachi style charcoal grill on a flat section of roof outside a dorm window,” said Fire Investigator Adam Fanjoy in a media release. ”The grill had been left unattended at the time of the fire.”
Students at Morton Hall awoke to fire alarms shortly after midnight on Saturday, as fire crews from 10 area towns descended on the East Wheelock Street building.
Firefighters battled the flames for about six hours, and much of the building was damaged.
All 300 students who live in the Wheelock cluster of dormitories escaped without injury. The roughly 70 students who lived in the Morton dorm, which suffered water, smoke and structural damage, were displaced and have been assigned new housing for the term.
Although investigators waited until Sunday to release the fire’s cause, students earlier suspected a grill could be to blame.
Kevin Patterson, a senior living in a nearby dorm, told the Valley News on Saturday that students often cook on a flat section of roof to the left of the building’s tower.
“People do that a lot,” he said. “A friend of mine on the first floor said that people go out there all the time.”
Charcoal grills are among the items not permitted in student dorm rooms, according to policies on the website fo the college’s Office of Residential Life.
According to the website, students found with grills could be fined $50 and be subjet to other disciplinary action.
State investigators are continuing their investigation into the fire, according to the news release.
Correction
Three hundred Dartmouth College students who live in the Wheelock cluster of dormitories all escaped a fire at Morton Hall early Saturday morning without injury. The roughly 70 students who lived in the Morton dorm, which suffered water, smoke and structural damage, were displaced and have been assigned new housing for the term. An earlier version of this story misstated how many students lived in Morton Hall.