— By Eric Francis

HANOVER - 11/3/24

Despite a smoky fire that broke out on the top floor of one of Dartmouth College’s medical laboratory buildings on Friday, it appears that all of the priceless experiments and extremely expensive equipment housed in the 8-story structure survived intact.

Students, faculty and researchers dutifully evacuated both the Remsen Medical Sciences building and the neighboring Vail Basic Sciences building in the part of the campus that houses the Geisel School of Medicine when the fire alarms went off just after 11 a.m. on Friday.

While Hanover firefighters were still en route from their nearby station, they were notified that sensors in the building indicated that sprinklers on the 8th floor of the building were flowing water.

“Our duty crew responded and found heavy smoke on the top floor of Remsen, which is basically a mechanical space, and upgraded to a first alarm,” Hanover Fire Chief Mike Gilbert recalled at the scene.

“They used a standpipe hose system in the building and stretched a line to the fire in a small mechanical space,” Gilbert explained. “There was a sprinkler in the space that had tripped and contained the fire, but [the fire] was still actively burning when they got there.”

Firefighters from Hanover, Hartford, and Lebanon used wet vacs to clear out out a large amount of water after the fire was knocked down late Friday morning. Photos by Eric Francis.

Firefighters used a small amount of water to douse the fire, which the chief said appeared to have begun on a maintenance countertop, before turning their attention to removing the large volume of water that had been sprayed by the sprinkler system prior to their arrival.

“Floors 7 and 6 had significant water and there was some trickling down clear to floors 4 and 3, but that was minor and the college did a great job and brought in their maintenance staff and are already getting it cleaned up,” the chief noted.

“The big concern is that there are a lot of experiments going on,” the chief said. “They have microscopes in here that are worth a half-a-million dollars…the equipment in here is just super expensive and there are experiments that have been going on for years.”

An initial walk-through with college officials and the fire department seemed to reassure staff that none of the labs had been compromised by water and no experiments had been contaminated.

“Most of the water went into hallways and pipe chases and down stairways.  Luckily we don’t see any major equipment damage,” the chief said.

With an audible “Whoop!” med students rushed down to get their backpacks, computers, and other belongings after staff were finally allowed in to retrieve them from some of the classrooms in the building.

While the exact cause is now under investigation by the college’s insurance company, Chief Gilbert said it did not appear suspicious.  “It looks like it’s just an accidental fire,” he said.

That was also the conclusion a year and a half ago when a fire broke out in a molecular biology lab on the 7th floor of Remsen that did extensive damage to labs on several floors, forcing them to close for over a year while restoration efforts took place.  That fire was eventually traced to an electrical malfunction in a piece of lab equipment.

Friday’s fire brought the Hanover, Lebanon and Hartford fire departments to the scene, while Lyme firefighters provided coverage for the Hanover station.

No one was hurt in the fire, and in an email to the medical school community on Sunday, Dean Duane Compton wrote, “Crews have made good progress this weekend to clean the areas affected by the water damage. The building is safe and will be open for access by all faculty, staff, and students on Monday morning.”