University police, the Starkville Fire Department and a state fire marshal continue to investigate the cause of a fire that ignited in the basement of Dorman Hall Wednesday night.
The blaze started at approximately 10 p.m. Wednesday, according to university police. Officers and firefighters quickly responded to a fire alarm, and the flames were completely extinguished by 10:30.
“The fire started and was contained in the basement,” vice president of student affairs Bill Kibler said. “It did not spread elsewhere, but smoke spread throughout the entire building. We’re very fortunate that we had excellent response by university police and the city fire department, and that we didn’t have more damage than we did.”
MSU Police Chief Georgia Lindley said that though there was no fire damage to the main and upper levels of the building, the combination of smoke and debris has left the building unusable until the proper cleanup and precautionary measures take place.
“The smell of smoke is very prevalent throughout the building,” Lindley said. She said that if faculty or students are in need of going into the building to retrieve any necessary items, such as keys, an officer will accompany them into the building, but they are not allowed access otherwise.
No one was injured during the incident. Several staff members were in the building when the fire ignited, but were working on the upper levels, Kibler said.
“A handful of people were working upstairs when the fire alarm went off, but thankfully they did the right thing and quickly got out of the building,” he said.
Lindley said the police department received no calls reporting the fire before the alarm went off.
Investigators were still working on determining the origin of the fire Thursday night. Lindley said the cause of the blaze, whether intentional or not, is still unclear.
“We’re still continuing to gather evidence,” she said. “[The case] is still pretty open.”
Kibler said investigators aren’t ruling out possibilities yet.
“Anytime you have a fire of this magnitude, you don’t eliminate any possibilities, but of course we can’t speculate on anything until we’ve got a full investigation,” he said.
Lindley said the building tentatively will be closed until Monday. It is still unclear, however, when the building will reopen.
Classes in Dorman Hall were cancelled Thursday, but associate vice president for Academic Affairs Ruth Prescott said classes that normally meet in the building will be relocated from today until the building is usable.
A list of class relocations are posted at the main MSU Web site, and a sign has been placed in front of Dorman Hall with a list of classes and their temporary locations. Prescott said the provost’s office is not speculating on when the building will open again.