Fire in Drop Box Sets Off Early-Morning Alarm in Winthrop

Winthrop House residents living in Gore Hall were awakened early yesterday morning because of a fire alarm set off by a burning mail basket outside room F-45.

Evacuated residents stood outside for about 30 to 45 minutes before being allowed to re-enter the dormitory. Police investigators are still searching for a cause.

The Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) received a call reporting the fire at 2:46 a.m., according to the police blotter.

When the police arrived, "officers discovered a working fire in the building," according to the blotter, which stated that arson investigators probed the fire's suspicious nature."

HUPD spokesperson Peggy A. McNamara had no additional comment when contacted yesterday.

The residents of the suite are Rachel H. Sommovilla '99 and Claire G. Schwab '99. Both students were in the room when the fire broke out, according to Sommovilla.

Schwab said they were alerted to the fire by the fire alarm, "but the situation is really a little more complicated than that," she added.

She did not say whether she reported the fire to the fire department.

"We were really freaked out," she said. The two went into Winthrop's courtyard and then to a friend's room, Schwab said. She said that she left the door unlocked.

"It's a bad subject altogether until we figure out what happened," Schwab said.

Both residents said they do not know how the fire started.

Several students offered differing accounts of the incident.

According to several F-entry residents who asked to remain anonymous, the firefighters and House staff did not have access to Winthrop House's master keys, located in the superintendent's office, for a while after the fire alarm sounded.

They were unable to enter F-45, the students said, and did not know where its occupants were.

Occupants of the neighboring room, F-44, said the fire alarm did not fully rouse them from sleep.

"We were awakened by the firemen," said Matthew A. Stratton '00. "They were clearing us out and they were really scared."

Passing his neighbors' room, Stratton said the hall was "pretty smoky." The fire-fighters asked the residents of F-44 who they were, "and where the girls were. That's what they wanted to know," he said.

Schwab and Sommovilla said they left a message on the answering machine of House resident tutor Mary Ellen Lennon.

"The House tutor knew where we were," Sommovilla said.

Students credit Lennon, who lives two floors below, with helping to extinguish the fire. Lennon refused to discuss the fire yesterday.

The smell of smoke lingered in the entryway yesterday and a large, sickle-shaped scar is visible on the wooden door of F-45.

A Gore Hall resident who spoke on the condition of anonymity said "there was a slow response [to the fire] all around. There was a slow response from the students."

Cambridge Deputy Fire Chief Jerry Reardon was unavailable for comment yesterday.

Winthrop Co-Master Cynthia Rosenberger yesterday declined to comment on the fire.