Ross School Dryer Fire Created Challenge for Firefighters
Update, Oct. 29, 3:00 p.m.: A dryer in the basement of the Ross School's Center for Well-Being in East Hampton caught fire Wednesday night, fire officials said. The building was reopened for use mid-morning.
The fire was quickly put out with the help of the school's sprinkler system, which activated about the same time firefighters discovered flames in the laundry room, and the damage was contained to that room. Three firefighters, including Ken Wessberg, the first assistant chief of the East Hampton Fire Department, were investigating an automatic alarm that had gone off shortly after 10 p.m.
Chief Wessberg said he smelled smoke upon entering the lobby at the Center for Well-Being, located at 20 Goodfriend Drive, on the campus of the Ross Upper School. He went to the kitchen on the second floor and a captain and a lieutenant headed to the basement. They saw smoke at the end of a long hallway. They opened a door to the laundry room and found smoke and flames. "The sprinkler system engaged and put the fire out," Chief Wessberg said.
Engines were called to the school, but the trucks were not used for any water. "The issue was smoke," the chief said. "When you get down the hallway, there's no way to push the smoke. There's no way to vent it."
Second Assistant Chief Gerry Turza called for the Bridgehampton Fire Department to bring its positive pressure fans, large electric fans with three-foot blades. Firefighters remained at the scene for more than two hours to get rid of the smoke. "That was our biggest challenge," Chief Wessberg said.
Tom Baker, an East Hampton Town fire marshal, said he still investigating what caused the commercial-sized dryer to catch fire, though he is leaning toward a malfunction. "I think they use it for laundering everything from uniforms to, what we found last night, cleaning towels, rags, and mop heads." Officials at the Ross School told Mr. Baker the last people at the school left at about 8:30 p.m., and had left the dryer on. "I would never recommend doing that," Mr. Baker said.
The fire destroyed the dryer and another dryer in its stack, Mr. Baker said. The room sustained mainly smoke and water damage.
There was no disruption to the schedule, according to Kristen Hyland, a spokeswoman for the school. "The damage was minimal and limited to an appliance at the site of the fire," she said in an email Thursday.
Mr. Baker gave the school "the green light for the wellness center to open" when the fire alarm and sprinkler systems were put back in service at about 10:30 a.m., though he said children should stay out of the basement for the time being.
His office also will make a recommendation to the school that the room be redesigned to include a better ventilation system. He said when the building was initially designed it did not include a laundry room, though he said that was not a violation. In fact, he had just inspected the school and that room last month. He found it to be clean, with no lint backup. "It could be a broken belt," he said of the cause.
Originally, Oct. 28, 11:05 p.m.: The East Hampton Fire Department was called to the Ross Upper School campus Wednesday night, when a fire was reported in the basement of the Center for Well-Being.
An automatic alarm went off in the building, located at 20 Goodfriend Drive in East Hampton, at about 10:15 p.m. A fire chief responded and found a fire in the basement laundry room. At least two of the department's engines were called to the scene, and firefighters quickly extinguished the fire.
At about 10:40 p.m., after the fire was put out, a fire chief asked for the Bridgehampton Fire Department to respond with its positive-pressure fans.
The East Hampton Town fire marshal's office is investigating the cause.