Over the course of the first week of November, the fire alarm at Heubeck hall was set off no less than four times: in the evening of Sunday, October 30, in the early hours of Tuesday, November 1, and twice within the span of twelve hours on Saturday, November 5. During that same weekend, vending machines in Heubeck and Welsh were shattered.
According to an email sent out to Heubeck Residents by Director of Residential Life Lindy Bobbitt, the fire alarms were set off after popcorn was “intentionally left in the microwave for long periods of time.” In response, all microwaves in Heubeck’s common rooms were removed. The fire alarm would not go off again until early on December 9, when it was left malfunctioning for more than an hour due to a pipe leakage.
In separate emails addressed to the residents of Heubeck and Welsh, Bobbitt noted that the costs of replacing the broken vending machines were between $4000 and $7000. She also encouraged residents of the buildings to come forward with information about the incidents, noting that without any information, the entire community would be charged with replacing the vending machines.
Despite the close timing of these two disruptive events, Tiffany Justice, Director of Campus Safety, said that her department has not yet identified a connection between them.
Justice, who has been working in Campus safety since 2017, believes that “there is no evidence that supports deliberate fire alarms have ever been set off in any campus building, during any of the years [she has] been on Goucher’s campus.”
