Currier House Blaze Destroys Dorm Room

A one-alarm fire broke the monotony of Currier House's reading period Saturday night and destroyed a student's room in the Mary Caperton Bingham building, Marvin F. Lazerson, senior tutor in Currier House, said yesterday.

Although no one suffered injuries, the fire completely destroyed room 414's walls, ceiling, window frame, and Design Research furniture. "Nobody was in the room at the time, no one was hurt, but everything was destroyed," Lazerson said.

According to Joseph L. Healey, deputy chief of the Cambridge Fire Department, the fire resulted from a defective electric cord to a stereo set. The usual one-alarm 11-truck dispatch responded to a call at 12:53 a. m., and quickly putout the flames in the dormitory at 64 Linnaean St.

"The room just burned, and we didn't know what happened," Karen L. Wilson '71 said. No one noticed the fire until the fire alarm, activated by a smoke sensor, sounded in the halls.

"Every suite has a fire door, and with the fire door shut, the fire couldn't spread. Students could not determine from which room the smoke was coming. It was a pleasing thing to learn about Currier House, if you have to find something pleasing about a fire," Lazerson said.

An adjacent suite room however did suffer damage.

The burnt-out residents, Mary Haugh '73 and her suitemate, Eileen Storey '73, spent Saturday night with friends. They will stay in the Currier House guest room for the next few days. "We're trying to find them rooms," Lazerson said.