100 days ignites excitement in seniors Seniors celebrate despite smoke scare

Author: Andrea LaRocca

The well-attended 100 Days Party at the Grille and dance in McCullough Social Space was brought to a sudden close on Saturday night, Feb. 19, when an audio speaker fire forced party-goers to evacuate the building at 1:30 a.m. early Sunday morning. Both Middlebury College Public Safety and the Middlebury Fire Department responded immediately after the fire alarm in McCullough Hall sounded. According to the Department of Public Safety, no one was injured and, save the speaker, no property was damaged.

Floyd Branch '06, better known as Skip, was DJ-ing at the McCullough dance when one of the large speakers slowly began to glow orange. When a tongue of flame appeared and the speaker began to smoke, students started to take notice. Skip said that he did not notice the fire at first and that another student came up and told him about it.

"The party was going really well, and someone came up to me and told me that the speaker was on fire," said Skip. "And so I said, 'Yeah, I know, this is a great party.' And the guy said, 'No, I mean the speaker is really on fire!'"

Volunteer Middlebury Firefighter Scott Palmer '05 was at the dance and was one of the first to respond to the fire.

"We carry pagers with us, so when I saw the smoke rising from the speaker, I knew I would probably be getting a call soon and that the fire alarm was about to go off," said Palmer. "Someone grabbed a fire extinguisher and put out the fire and then there was just some smoke in the building, so we cleared that out." Palmer said that since the fire had not escalated to a level considered dangerous, it did not take long to put out the fire and to clean up afterwards.

Bruce Davis '07, who was working the sound system at the Juice Bar on Saturday night, also responded early because he knew how the sound system in McCullough worked.

"What I saw was that on the upper half of the speaker, in the back of the box there was a large plate, most likely an aluminum heat dissapator, that was bright orange-white and looked like it was melting," said Davis, describing the how the speaker fire looked up close. "Eventually, the speaker cones themselves were burning."

The McCullough dance, which was ironically scheduled to end exactly when the speaker caught fire, was the grand finale to the 100 Days Party in the Grille which featured a live campus band called Del Boca Vista. Complimentary food, lower prices for alcoholic beverages, a complimentary Class of 2005 pint glass and three beverage vouchers for of-age students who donated to the senior class enticed many members of the Class of 2005 to spend the night celebrating the upcoming graduation with their classmates.

According to Lia Lopez '05, Senior Committee co-chair, about 300 people attended the 100 Days Party - which she called an impressive turnout.

"Steve Reigle, the Grille manager mentioned that this party was the largest alcohol event that the Grille has ever hosted," Lopez said.

Last semester, the 200 Days Party was held at Mister Up's in town, and it received some criticism because underage seniors were not allowed to attend the party. By hosting the 100 Days Party on campus, this problem was avoided because, as Martha Dutton '05, Senior Committee co-chair, pointed out, "Like every other event at the Grille, people under 21 were admitted but were not served alcohol." Lopez emphasized that the Grille was preferential for a variety of other reasons as well.

"We really wanted to have an event where we were not obligated to charge people at the door for alcohol. Middlebury College does not pay for alcohol purchased off campus," said Lopez. "By not having to charge at the door, we were able to offer free drinks and pint glasses as an incentive for seniors to give to the Senior Class Gift. Also, the Grille is a central location that is accessible to everyone on campus and we had hoped, in planning the event, to attract those seniors who are less interested in drinking in town on a Thursday night."

Over 100 gifts to be put towards the senior class were colleted at the 100 Days Party. This statistic, which Dutton and Lopez were very happy about, means that about 40 percent of the senior class has already contributed to the Senior Class Gift.

"We are thrilled that so many have been enthusiastic about the gift and hope that by the end of the year all seniors will have given." Lopez said, "We are really focusing on giving participation this year."

As a result of the enthusiasm demonstrated by the Class of 2005 last weekend, Dutton said that, "We're in the process of considering a 50 Days Party because of the success of the 100 Days Party."