Fire in Mahoney Residential College causes students to evacuate

Dryer on the third floor of Mahoney Residential College catches on fire.

A fire that started in the laundry room of Mahoney Residential College’s third floor during the late hours of Monday, Oct. 28 activated fire sprinklers on both the second and fourth floors, resulting in significant flooding of hallways. Students who live in the building evacuated to the Pearson lobby and Mahoney-Pearson Dining Hall. 

The University of Miami released a statement on Tuesday, Oct. 29, in regards to the incident.

“Last night, a dryer caught on fire in the third-floor laundry room of Mahoney Residential College. As a result, Housing and Residential Life (HRL) had to relocate all of the third floor, some of the second floor and one unit on the first floor within Mahoney.”

The University assured that students would be able to return to their dorm rooms within a day, with the exception of rooms which were directly impacted by the flooding. 

“HRL expects to be able to return most of these students back to their on-campus assigned spaces today, except for about 14 rooms that had water intrusion that will require more time for the restoration process to take place. The remaining students that were relocated will be able to return to their rooms between tomorrow, Oct. 30 and Thursday, Oct. 31,” the University of Miami said.

Most students living above the fourth floor were allowed to return to their dorm rooms around midnight, but approximately 70 residents from the impacted floors were relocated to the THesis Hotel. 

According to students, there was approximately a two-and-a-half hour wait before they could return to their dorm rooms through the outdoor emergency stairwell. 

Madison Gaynor, a seventh floor resident in Mahoney, stated that she was not aware of the fire because the smoke alarms on her floor were not operating. 

“There were three fire trucks and about three police cars. The heads of housing and residential life were there as well. Our RAs did not know there was a fire until someone posted a video of it in the floor 7 GroupMe, mostly because none of our smoke alarms went off, so no one knew what was happening,” she said. 

The fire alarm system throughout Mahoney Residential College functioned as designed, which prompted the evacuation of the building, according to Facilities Operations and Planning. 

Sprinkler-induced damage has made certain dorm rooms temporarily uninhabitable, therefore those residents will be relocated for the coming days. 

“As we were going up the stairs we saw floors 1-3 drenched from the sprinkler water and the stairwell was somewhat covered in water as well. Outside, you could see a leak from the ground that had water gushing out of it. I got to my room around 1 a.m. and went to sleep by 2 a.m.,” Gaynor said.

Reflecting on the aftermath, she noted the damage caused by the incident.

“I’m not sure if the fire spread to the other dryers on floor 3, but after taking the indoor stairwell to exit the dorm this morning, I saw the visible water damage on the floors of floors 1-3 and maintenance ‘drying them’ using larger fans. I hope everyone is okay,” she said.