UPDATE: Cigarette caused Sweet Briar fire, official says

It was about 2:45 a.m. Thursday when firefighter Rebecca Adams heard her radio go off.

Knowing that she had class in the morning, she planned to leave the fire to be handled by the rest of the crew.

Until she heard where it was — a Sweet Briar College dorm.

“I wanted to be there,” said Adams, a senior at the college and a volunteer with the Amherst Fire Department.

Paul Davies, vice president for finance and administration at the college, said two students discovered the fire when they were returning to the one-story, duplex dorm on Elijah Road.

They smelled the smoke, called the college’s campus safety office and evacuated the six other girls who were asleep inside the Music Box, so named because it used to house the school’s music department. No one was injured.

“They got it a little bit before the fire alarms went off,” Davies said.

A cigarette caused the fire, said Gary Roakes, the Amherst County public safety director. Embers from the cigarette became lodged between the door and the wall. One of the residents poured water on it, which helped prevent a more rapid spread of the fire, he said.

Adams was with the first crew to arrive on scene.

Firefighters searched the smoke-filled building for the fire and started tearing out bricks to extinguish the source, Adams said.

She spent her time reassuring her classmates.

“I saw the girls down the road, kind of freaking out trying to watch. They had no idea what was going on,” Adams said. “It was nice for them to get an update, and to get it from someone they knew.”

Adams, who is double majoring in chemistry and math, also could sympathize with the girls, most of whom are seniors.

“They were really concerned about their books and stuff; it’s finals week next week. That’s a really huge deal.”

The crew took those considerations to heart, Adams said.

“We took most of their clothes and valuables and put everything on one of the beds with a tarp,” she said. “I think pretty much everything made it through fine.”

Davies said the damage “is more of a hassle for the kids than anything else.”

“Fortunately, it looks like nothing that a good dry cleaning can’t take care of.”

As for the building, Davies said it took “minimal damage,” totaling about $12,000.

“The fire started on the doorstep, underneath it,” he said. “So the fire was on the outside of the building as opposed to the inside.”

He said the building will be repaired over the summer. In the meantime, the students are in temporary housing until the end of the semester in two weeks.

“It was not as severe as it could have been,” he said. “The students were very scared, but they did a great job. And the fire company did a great job. We’re just glad this becomes a learning experience for all of us.”

Staff writer Scott Marshall contributed.