Fire at W&M

Yesterday afternoon, a horrible fire broke out in one of the residence halls at William and Mary.  The fire severely damaged that dormitory, named Preston Hall, and significantly damaged another hall called Giles.  Giles and Preston halls each have seventy-two students who live there, and all the students got out safely.  However, they are all homeless for the time being.  Last night the students were housed at the Governor's Inn, a hotel owned by Colonial Williamsburg, who immediately offered assistance when they learned of the fire at William and Mary.  I borrowed this photograph of the scene from the William and Mary website, and you can see all the smoke rising from the buildings.  Through the efforts of the firefighters, Giles was saved (although damaged), and Preston was kept from being complete destroyed.

I have always found the idea of a fire like this particularly scary.  So much is lost in such a short amount of time...  Yet, it always inspiring to see how people stick together and help one another out in times like this.  Fire departments from the City of Williamsburg, Newport News, James City and York Counties, Camp Peary, and the Naval Weapons Station came to help battle the blaze, assisted by the Virginia State Police, the Colonial Williamsburg Security, and the William and Mary Police.  In addition to the help from Colonial Williamsburg, community agencies and businesses came to the scene to help, as well as the faculty and staff of the College.  People have been donating supplies to help the displaced students, and doing all they can to support them in their time of need.   It is good to be part of such a community, even though it is awful when such things happen.

Comments

[Tessa]

Hello from San Francisco!

W&M is my alma mater (B.S. Math, '92) and to see a part of the skyline even slightly hazed with smoke is unsettling. I didn't find out about the fire until I saw the e-mail from Sullivan to the alumni mailing list today.

Well I'm glad no one was seriously hurt. I lived in Spotswood House (now called Spotswood Hall) as an undergraduate and Munford off-campus in the Dillard complex. Those buildings are so old, perhaps there was an electrical overload.

Also, loved the pics of Wren!! It brought back a lot of memories studying in those circular window seats.

I'm quite envious of the current student body. I mean, WiFi in the Sunken Gardens and Starbucks in Swem! In my day we were hoping they would lift the ban on A/C units without a doctor's note.