The O'Connell House cancelled its annual Middlemarch Ball last weekend due to concerns of fire safety in the wake of a devastating nightclub fire in Warwick, Rhode Island that claimed the lives of 99 people and seriously injured another 200.
"This nightclub event in Rhode Island has certainly got everybody to sit up and say 'wow,'" said Arthur Andersen, a fire safety consultant for Boston College.
"Basically, while we have a different situation at the O'Connell House we're not going to have pyrotechnics, of course, but by the same token, the ingredients [involved in the Rhode Island fire] come pretty close. An excessive amount of flammable materials, no sprinklers, a large crowd, lighting that is used behind some of the sets for effect, are all factors," said Andersen.
"It just became a concern," he said. "It became one of those concerns where you said, 'I think we need to look at this closely.'"
Don Wood, a safety officer in the Office of Environmental Health and Safety, said he contacted Chris Darcy, assistant dean in the Office of the Dean for Student Development (ODSD), two weeks ago to recommend inspecting the O'Connell House earlier than usual. Each year, the Newton Fire Department inspects the house, and the University hires an officer from the department to be on hand during Middlemarch.
"I was afraid that the whole project would go through to its finished stage, and then that evening have the detail officer [from the Newton Fire Department] show up and call back to headquarters and tell the chief on duty that we have a problem up here, and have him tell us that we can't do this and to shut it down," said Wood.
"With guests arriving it would have been a bad situation," he said. "So, I tried, and Chris [Darcy] agreed that it was in our best interest to get the fire department in as soon as possible and get their determination and options, if there were options available to us."
Darcy said that the University wanted to have the Newton Fire Department come in to inspect O'Connell House and see if the possibility existed that the decorations could be changed or modified so that the event could still take place.
"We made the determination that there were several 'hot spots' [in O'Connell]," said Darcy. "And we wanted to talk to Newton about taking down displays, spraying curtains [to make them flame retardant], moving papier-mâché decorations, using different materials, and taking down other materials. I probably had a list of about 15 things that we were discussing with the Newton Fire Department."
"Don [Wood] impressed upon them the need that we need to look at this quickly, because if there was any way that we could correct some of the problems, it would still allow the staff to move forward," said Andersen.
The building's lack of a sprinkler system, however, raised concerns that if a small fire was to occur, the mix of flames and decorations would ignite the O'Connell House.
Wood said that because the O'Connell House is "grandfathered," meaning that it was built before fire safety codes were tightened, it is not required to be equipped with the same safety equipment that it would be if built today.
"Should it be sprinkled? I would say every building on campus should be sprinkled, and they're not," he said. "However, in the past, there have been a huge number of buildings on campus that have been retrofitted with sprinklers."
More than 450 students were expected to attend this year's Disney-themed Middlemarch Ball, said Darcy.
"It's upsetting that the event had to be cancelled," said Andersen, "and we certainly don't like having to be part of the group that had a hand in doing that. But, we don't want to see anyone get hurt."
"In my case, I've agonized over the decision that was made to cancel," said Wood. "But, I've never agonized over my decision to really check this. There was going to be too many kids in that home to take a chance, and it isn't worth it."
Andersen said that something as little as a discarded, lit cigarette butt that landed on one of the decorations could have set the building on fire.
Wood said that papier-mâché, cloth material, vinyl, nylon, and untreated wood structures, all of which are highly flammable, were in use at the O'Connell House.
The University decided to cancel the event following the recommendation of the Newton Fire Department, which informed the University that they could be cited for violations, and that they would not send an officer on detail to the event.
"We were pretty far into decorating," said Zach Barber, an O'Connell House manager and CSOM '04. "We probably had at least 70 percent of it done. It was kind of sad, because the volunteers definitely put their hearts into it for the past two weeks."
Emily Roper, fiscal manager for the O'Connell House, estimated its losses at between $13,500-$14,000.
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