by Stacy Hutto
Managing editor
Montgomery Street behind the Fine Arts Building was closed to traffic due to a fire in the College Inn Commons apartments on Feb. 1. Three fire trucks and assorted fire vehicles, a Durant Police car, an ambulance and Campus Police all responded to the fire.
Durant Police Officers Travis Dill and Rick Ford were on scene standing with the crowd. According to the officers the fire started about 2 p.m. in the bottom apartment and damaged the top apartment. There was no one inside the apartment where the fire started.
Feb. 6 Community Director Wendy Leathers said, “The fire started in apartment 129 in the heating unit. There was no tenant in the apartment.”
According to Leathers smoke went into apartment 229, which is above 129, but the fire department brought in fans that cleared out the smoke and there was no damage.
According to Deputy Fire Chief Mark Hall, the fire appeared to be electrical, but can’t be confirmed at this time.
Feb. 4 Durant Fire Marshal Wade Boyd said, “The fire was contained to the AC/ heater unit. Maintenance (from the College Inn Apartments) is supposed to look at it to figure out what happened. Electrical is not my specialty.”
Leathers said, “We are going building by building, to every unit checking cords and filters. We are going to be cleaning coils and making sure all units are taken care of.”
Leathers also said, “Kudos to the Durant Fire Department. They got here quickly and did a wonderful job.”
Boyd said according to the reports, the response time was five minutes. Four trucks with eight men responded to the fire from Central Fire Station on First Street.
Campus Police blocked off Montgomery Street where it intersects with Seventh Avenue, while the Durant Police Department had Montgomery Street blocked off by the faculty parking lot behind the Fine Arts and Science buildings.