NEWS/BRIEFS: Thursday, September 12, 1996

Two fires erupt in dumpsters A fire started at approximately 7:33 p.m. Tuesday in a dumpster behind the Class of 1920 Commons, according to University Police Captain John Richardson. The second fire, which occurred in a dumpster near High Rise East, began at 10:11 a.m. yesterday, Richardson said. The fire department responded to both fires minutes after calls were placed and put out the flames within an hour by flooding the trash bins with water. Only discarded mattresses and furniture were damaged as a result of the fires. University Police have not determined the exact cause of the fires, Richardson said. "It's very hard to determine the cause of a dumpster fire," Director of Fire and Occupational Safety Jim Miller said. Miller speculated that someone carelessly threw a cigarette into the trash dumpsters. Unless trash fires similar to these two become common on campus, "it's not worth an investigation," Miller explained. Since both fires were contained in dumpsters that were 40 yards long, University officials were only concerned that smoke from the fires would activate alarms in neighboring buildings, Miller said. – Maisie Wong