Fire Rages in Four Quincy Suites; Cause of $35,000 Blaze is Unknown

Fire ripped through the upper stories of the new section of Quincy House early yesterday morning, extensively damaging four suites.

The cause of the fire remained unknown, but a deputy chief speculated yesterday that it had been started by either a cigarette or an electric short in a student's room.

Spokesman for the Harvard Buildings and Grounds Department and the Vappi Construction Co. declined to estimate the cost of damage, but published figures ranged from $35,000 to $100,000.

As reconstructed from interviews with students, faculty, and firemen, and from on-the-scene observation, this is what happened yesterday:

5 A.M.--Fire breaks out on the sixth floor of New Quincy, in the living room of suite 602, shortly after 5 a.m. The fire is discovered at about 5:20 by security officer John Breen, who places an alarm at the alarm box on Grant and DeWolfe Streets at 5:22.

Dean W. Chandler '65, in suite 604, awakes to the sound of breaking glass and a policeman's whistle. He rushes from his seventh-floor bedroom -- directly above the burning living room--to the door of 602. When he opens the door, the fire is out of control and is blazing so violently that the draft it creates prevents him from closing the door.

He immediately sounds the internal alarm and rushes downstairs to the lower suites, ringing doorbells, opening doors, and yelling "Everybody out! This is not a drill! Fire upstairs!"

John M. Bullitt '43, Master of Quincy House, awakens at the sound of whistles and at first suspects vandalism or a mugging. When the alarm goes off, he evacuates his family from the penthouse.

John F. Naylor, a resident tutor in History, and his wife are nearly trapped in their suite at the south end of the sixth floor. They escape down a smoke-filled staircase.

5:30 A.M.--Students are trapped in two suites. In the fifth-floor bedrooms of 602, Lawrence A. Thomas '66, John T. Nagurney '66, and Gerald P. Costanzo '67 are blocked by flames at the top of the stairs leading to the living room. They try to escape through the emergency exits, but the doorknob breaks off. They beat on the door with the broken knob until neighboring students open the door from the adjoining suite. Unnoticed, Robert L. Sinclair '67 remains asleep in his room.

Across the hall in 601, Martin B. Vidgoff '66, and George Neville '66 dash through the flaming hallway, choking and blinded by black smoke, toward the south stairway. Their roommates David J. Losk '66 and Robert M. Coleman '66, try unsuccessfully to escape through the seventh-floor fire exits, but are also forced to exit through their blazing living room.

Fireman use a ladder to enter the building through a window in the south wall to evacuate other students on the sixth floor. Master Bullitt meets Chandler and University Police trying to break through fire exits on the seventh floor to reach any remaining students. Using a pass key, they enter three suites, but are blocked by smoke. Garland E. Allen, Senior Tutor of Quincy House, crawls along the sixth-floor hall, under the smoke, attempting to warn other students who may still be trapped.

Hose trucks, hook-and-ladders, pumping wagons, and 200 evacuated Quincy students fill DeWolfe St. as thirty-foot flames roar through a broken sixth-floor window.

Water directed at the blaze from an extended aerial ladder seems to douse the fire. The flames disappear, and members of the rescue squad appear at the windows of adjacant suites and bed rooms.

5:40 A.M.--The fire crosses the hall to suites on the west side of the building and encounters a blast of air, presumably from open windows in 603. A hot air explosion rekindles the fire, spreading it rapidly to other suites.

The expanding fire cuts off firemen George Bennett, Joseph O'Hare, and John Rocca of the rescue squad from the hall and traps them at the window of 600. Clouds of smoke stream out of the windows, forcing the firemen out on the sixth-story window ledge. After a terrifying delay, the large serial ladder moves to the window, and the three men shakily climb on and descend. They were among six firemen treated for smoke inhalation at Cambridge City Hospital.

5:45 A.M.--A second fire company arrives, bringing the number of fire fighters to 107, and the equipment to 17 pieces. Fire breaks through sixth-floor windows on the west side of the House. Rumors spread that Robert Sinclair has not been evacuated.

The flames on the west side of the building become more intense and burn in adjacent suites 601 and 603. Firemen place two hoses through fifth-floor bedroom windows on the south wall, and a third through an east-side window. Firemen place manual extension ladders along the west wall and against the library.

6:00 A.M.--Firemen discover Robert Sinclair, unharmed but shaken, in his room, and he escapes. His fifth-floor bedroom is smoky and covered with three inches of water.

Firemen ascend the ladder toward the sixth-floor window on the courtyard side, carrying a three-inch hose. They break through the unbroken corner of the window with the nozzle and bring the fire under control.

6:15 A.M.--Clean-up work begins on the east side of the building, as the suites overlooking the courtyard still smoulder Quincy men, some out of necessity, and others for convenience, drink their orange juice in the dining hall in their pajamas