The hostel situation had been escalating to new heights every day. With reports of robberies, inadequate space and inefficient cooling systems rampant, it was hard to imagine that it could get much worse. However, LUMS has a way of breaking expectations when you least expect it. The situation reached its crescendo at around midnight on September 14, when a hostel room caught fire.
The fire started in a room on the 4th floor of F3. The fire was first seen by students walking towards the Dorm from the library lawn. According to eye witness reports, an excessive amount of smoke was coming from the building but they were unable to determine where it was coming from. Eventually they saw a window with fire inside and immediately sprang to action. They messaged the F3 Whatsapp group chat ad ran to the security office. The girls were prompt to respond and immediately started evacuation themselves because the warden was not present at the time. Interestingly, no fire detector or smoke alarm went off during this time. Had it not been for two girls walking towards the dorm from the right angle the fire may gone undetected till it was much later and could’ve caused much more damage.
The girls started waking up people asleep in the common room and their rooms as there was no alarm to warn the sleeping students. By this time the smoke had reached the 3rd floor as well and it was hard to see in hallways. The residents of the 4th floor tried to use the emergency exit as there was too much smoke in the hallway but they were locked. A student broke the glass that encased the emergency exit key but the doors remained jammed. Eventually all the girls stumbled blinding down the stairs and made it outside. In the mean time, another fire extinguisher was brought in by the security office as the one F3 was nonfunctional. Eventually, the fire was controlled and the girls were allowed back into the hostel.
The purpose of this dramatic retelling is not to recycle this tragedy for reads but to depict how truly absurd and hysterical the situation really was. Had it not been for the girls’ own quick thinking, LUMS was utterly unprepared to deal with such an emergency. Despite the fact that the girls action were heroic, the question still remains, why were they necessary?
This brings us to the question of what caused the fire. According to the esteemed Colonel, the fire was caused by one of the girls smoking in her room and not putting out her cigarette properly. He reached this conclusion by going into the room and employing his expertise at jumping to conclusions. According to the resident of the room, neither she nor her roommate was on campus for at least 11 hours. Regardless of their protests, their room was locked. They were only allowed to retrieve some of their belongings under supervision of senior student council members. For now, they have been relocated. Investigation has been going on about the actual cause of the fire but whatever the verdict, it is clear that LUMS needs to updates its fire safety system urgently.
The Student council was quick to respond and sent out a list of demands to the administration post the event. On Monday a protest was organized by the student body that demanded better living conditions for all the dorms. They raised the issue of air conditioning, space and primarily fire safety to the OSA. Following the outrage, the Dean of the OSA responded with an email of his own. He claimed that each dorm is getting renovated and evaluated one by one. He also promised for fire safety systems in the hostels and academic block.
It is important to note however, that this is not the first instance of fire in the hostels. Last year in September, a fire broke out in the Male hostels as well. Their concerns were dismissed at the time. So it is not that the administration is not aware of the hazardous condition of the hostels, it seems they are simply unwilling to do something until they are forced into it. It reflects on a general trend of the administration, especially the residence department to overlook genuine complains from students. It takes near tragedies for them to come to action and even then, their first instinct is to blame the students and pile fines on them. At this point, the incompetency of the administration seems full-blown and it is clear that further student action is needed to get actual change on the campus. In the meantime I think we can expect some more atrocities from LUMS. So I guess the real question is: what’s next?