A first-floor fire in Riepe College House forced one resident to jump from a first-floor window and sent him and a Penn Police officer to the hospital for the night.
Officials do not yet know the source of the fire, but said that heat coming from 107 McIlhenny resident Vivek Patel's mattress activated the sprinkler in his room.
Penn Director of Fire and Emergency Services Ted Bateman said Patel was asleep until the sprinklers activated. He jumped out of his window to escape the smoke, although the door was not blocked.
He and the Penn Police officer who broke into the room were taken to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania for smoke inhalation and held overnight for observation.
Neither was seriously injured.
Smoke damage was limited to the room and immediate hallway, but there was water damage to the music rooms in the McIlhenny basement.
The fire department received the alarm at about 10:50 p.m.
Forty-four emergency workers in 15 vehicles were deployed to 36th and Spruce streets by Philadelphia fire services, but only four fire trucks were used to control the fire. One ambulance was used to transport the victim to HUP.
By 11:15 p.m., firefighters had extinguished the fire, and most Quad residents had evacuated, said Philadelphia Batallion Chief 11 Robert Skarbek.
Skarbek said major damage was averted by the building's sprinkler system, which confined the fire to Patel's room.
Bateman agreed.
"I can't emphasize this enough," he said. "The sprinkler averted a catastrophic event."
Firefighters had to break down the door of McIlhenny 209 -- the room one floor above Patel's -- to ensure that the fire had not spread and that there was adequate ventilation.
That room suffered no smoke damage. College junior and former Daily Pennsylvanian reporter Michael Rugnetta, who lives there, was not in the room at the time.
Philadelphia Fire Captain Thomas Gallagher, who helped fight the fire, said the students evacuated efficiently.
Students were allowed to re-enter Ware College House by 11:40 p.m., and Riepe residents were allowed to return around midnight.
Ware College House Dean Nathan Smith said at least 15 residential advisers and graduate associates from Ware and several from Riepe immediately went outside to help organize students.
"It seems the fairly elaborate staff training has paid off," he said.
Riepe College House Dean Marilynne Diggs-Thompson was not on campus during the fire.
Wharton freshman Drew Thurston entered McIlhenny through a Ware entrance to observe the fire and said the halls were filled with smoke and other students were still in the building.
"There was definitely some confusion in the halls," he said.
Some students said they were reluctant to evacuate because they thought it was a drill or a student-triggered false alarm.
After hearing the alarm, Ware resident and College freshman Gabe Burkett said he was confused about whether there was actually a fire.
"I just thought somebody pulled the alarm or something because people were laughing and fooling around in the hall," Burkett said. "Once people found out it was a fire, the reaction was different. [Students] took it a lot more seriously."
Campus police said Patel will be permanently moved to a different residence.
Patel could not be reached for comment.
