RA Stories: Short Circuiting Window Fans are Never A Good Idea

Submitted by Rayhyn Kamea, Resident Advisor, University of Kentucky

I was walking back to my hall after a date and I noticed what looked like fireworks going on in someone's room. I sighed as I realized that it was my floor, but then the window caught fire. I realized that it wasn't fireworks…it was the window fan short-circuiting. The window went up quickly and we ran inside and told the RA at the desk to pull the fire alarm, since it had yet to be activated. Even after that, we had to knock on doors and yell at people to run out since they thought it was a drill and didn't bother to move their buns. Outside we had people calling their roommates to make sure they were out of the building and to tell them to come back if they could. Luckily, the two girls whose room caught fire weren't in it at the time, one was in the shower and the other was at a night class. As the RA I sent an “interesting” text message to the room residents.

In the end, more things were damaged from the water blown into the window by the fire department than the fire, and things weren't that bad.