After the fire in South Hubbard Hall, the laundry room was set to open back up Monday, with workers moving new dryers into the room Monday morning.
Contrary to some rumors on campus, fires caused by faulty dryers or operator errors are a fairly rare occurrence in residence halls.
South Hubbard Hall’s laundry room had been closed since the day of the fire Feb. 19 and would “be unavailable until repairs have been completed,” Dean Matsudo, operations coordinator for East Neighborhood, wrote in an email to Hubbard Hall residents.
The room went through several areas of renovations. It was re-painted and a company called WASH, which MSU contracts for its laundry services, replaced all the dryers in the room.
Associate Director of Facilities for Residence Education and Housing Services Paul Manson said the room should be available again Monday, and REHS doesn’t predict anything preventing them from doing that.
“This is a pretty fast recovery from an event like this to getting the room re-opened and getting services back,” Manson said.
Only two dryers, which were the source of the original fire and the one directly above it, were actually damaged in the incident, although smoke residue had settled on several others, Manson said.
Damage to the room itself was minimal, Manson said, as the drywalls themselves did not need to be replaced, only painted. Workers also cleaned the ventilation system, which had allowed smoke to climb to the upper floors of Hubbard Hall.
Manson, while not commenting on the specific cause of the fire, said that a number of things could have been the cause, which was probably a unit overheating and igniting the lint.
Dryer fires are not very common on campus, Manson said, and he is aware of every fire incident.
He said that a rumor regarding several laundry fires in Bryan Hall was untrue.
“I am not aware of any other fires in any other buildings other than South Hubbard involving a dryer,” he said, adding that this was the first dryer fire he’s dealt with in quite a long time, after working here for 31 years.
Fire Marshal Denis Zietlow said rumors regarding this being common are false.
“They are not a common risk and have happened very infrequently over the years,” he wrote in an email.
