WATERVILLE, Maine — An unattended candle that was left burning on a bureau in a Colby College dorm room was blamed for a Thursday morning fire that forced the evacuation of a building known as the East Quad.
Captain Jeff Brazier of the Waterville Fire Department said the fire broke out just before 10 a.m. Thursday, and working sprinklers in the building kept it from spreading.
“The sprinkler system did its job,” Brazier told the Bangor Daily News on Friday morning.
All students who were in the building at the time were evacuated, according to Brazier. The three students who share the room were not in it when the fire broke out, he added.
Some aerosol cans and cosmetics were located on top of the bureau where the candle was burning, Brazier said, and some clothes that were on the floor caught fire.
About 20 Waterville firefighters were dispatched to the scene while Fairfield firefighters stood by at the Waterville station.
Colby students are not allowed to have candles in their dorm rooms, according to Brazier.
No students or firefighters were injured.
