2008 Woodie Awards
Students cope with power outage
Kevin Murphy/Associate Sports Editor
Issue date: 3/5/07 Section: News
Residents of Lincoln, Stevenson and Douglas residence halls were without power Friday night as a result of an electrical fire in the basement of Martin Luther King Jr. University Union.
Firefighters turned the electricity off at about 9:30 p.m. to lessen the risk of injury to personnel working the problem.
The power was left off for about an hour.
Brittney Fentress, associate resident director in Stevenson Hall, was on duty when she first noticed the power was out in her room.
She said she walked out of her apartment and noticed other residents were walking on the floor.
She made the call to other resident assistants, whether they were on duty or not, and the assistants went to the other floors and started doing floor checks.
"At that point I didn't know what was going on," Fentress said.
Fentress had other resident assistants check Lincoln, Stevenson and Douglas halls as a precaution to make sure no one burned any candles and to keep residents calm.
"My plan of action was … to make sure we were visible and to calm them and inform them of information we had at the time," Fentress said.
Students roamed the hallways as they waited for the power to be restored.
"The backup generator was on so it provided light in the hallways," Fentress said.
Fentress said the light was also on in the stairwells and in the south side lobby.
Larisca Cascio, a junior elementary education major, started playing board games with other residents in the hallway when the power went out.
"We wanted to be entertained," Cascio said.
Cascio and other residents were calm, Fentress said.
Firefighters turned the electricity off at about 9:30 p.m. to lessen the risk of injury to personnel working the problem.
The power was left off for about an hour.
Brittney Fentress, associate resident director in Stevenson Hall, was on duty when she first noticed the power was out in her room.
She said she walked out of her apartment and noticed other residents were walking on the floor.
She made the call to other resident assistants, whether they were on duty or not, and the assistants went to the other floors and started doing floor checks.
"At that point I didn't know what was going on," Fentress said.
Fentress had other resident assistants check Lincoln, Stevenson and Douglas halls as a precaution to make sure no one burned any candles and to keep residents calm.
"My plan of action was … to make sure we were visible and to calm them and inform them of information we had at the time," Fentress said.
Students roamed the hallways as they waited for the power to be restored.
"The backup generator was on so it provided light in the hallways," Fentress said.
Fentress said the light was also on in the stairwells and in the south side lobby.
Larisca Cascio, a junior elementary education major, started playing board games with other residents in the hallway when the power went out.
"We wanted to be entertained," Cascio said.
Cascio and other residents were calm, Fentress said.
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