Warren evacuated after short circuit

Warren Towers residents evacuated the building Saturday night due to an electrical malfunction and power outage that left about 20 students trapped in elevators, Boston Fire Department officials said.

‘There was a massive short circuit that generated a lot of heat,’ BFD spokesman Steve Macdonald said.

‘That generated shock and caused all the elevators to stop running,’ he said. The elevators were stuck on different floors in each tower.

BFD received the call to report to Warren at 7:21 p.m., Macdonald said.

Although there was smoke, there was not necessarily a fire. Instead, Macdonald said the ‘massive short circuit’ generated enough heat to set off the sprinklers. No one was injured.

BU spokesman Colin Riley said the problem originated in the main electrical room for B Tower.

Warren houses about 1,500 to 1,600 students, Riley said. The BU housing website states that Warren can hold up to about 1,800 students.

College of Communication freshman Isabel Shanahan said she was in the dining hall when the first signs of trouble appeared.

‘It started getting all smoky in there,’ she said.

Shanahan returned to her room after dinner and the alarms started to sound.

‘My RA seemed pretty upset,’ she said. ‘He was yelling at everyone to get out.’

CAS freshman Mark Meltzer said he was in an elevator when the power went out.

‘I got in the elevator, going up to the fifth [floor] . . . the power died,’ he said. ‘Nobody was freaking out. We were sitting there, talking. Someone was texting. We knew there was a fire, but we didn’t know to what extent it was going on. It got hotter.’

Meltzer said he said he was in the elevator for 15 minutes before the fire department opened the doors. Less fortunate students were trapped for several hours.

‘The firemen were literally jabbing at the door to get us out,’ he said.

Once outside, students waited for hours to be let back in their dorm. Riley said students were allowed to return around 12:20 a.m.

CAS freshman Hannah Somerville said while waiting to be let back in, she got food from the Shelton Hall and West Campus Late Nite, watched three episodes of ‘South Park’ at the George Sherman Union and spent time on the COM lawn.

‘At least the weather was nice,’ she said.

College of General Studies freshman Gretchen Baker, who works in the dining hall, said she and the other employees were let back into the building to clean the hall in the dark, at 10:15 p.m.

‘We had to throw away all the food in the refrigerators that was perishable,’ she said.

Metro Boston Disaster Responder David Lopez said the Salvation Army Emergency Disaster Services arrived at about 8:50 p.m. and parked outside of COM. They handed out bottles of water, snacks, Oreos and crackers.

‘We’re just here to provide as much comfort as possible,’ he said.

Riley said students were allowed to stay at the GSU until Warren was clear for students to go back inside. He said the police and fire department had to wait to get the ‘all clear’ from the utilities company.

‘They want to make sure that when they restore power that, there’s no problem,’ he said.

MacDonald said he does not know when the elevators will be up and running because the fire department had to pry the elevator doors open to rescue the students.

‘It’s a question if they’ll be up again,’ he said. ‘We have elevator cars that have actual damage to them.’

All the elevators were within their inspection expiration dates, except for the left elevator in A Tower, which expired in November. The middle elevators in A and B towers, and the left C tower elevator were inaccessible for gathering the expiration dates. The inspection date in the left B tower elevator was obscured.

MacDonald said the initial estimate for the damage is $300,000.

Staff writers Andy Facini, Lauren Finch, Ellie Choi, Christina Braccio, Annie Ropeik and Vivian Ho contributed to the reporting of this article.