VIDEO: VFD investigating cause of fire extinguisher incident in Coyote Village
A fire extinguisher set off early Sunday morning prompted an evacuation of all four floors in Coyote Village.
At around 2 a.m., first responders from the Vermillion Fire Department, Clay County Emergency Medical Services and the University of South Dakota Police Department were called to Coyote Village after being alerted of heavy smoke on the fourth floor.
Shannon Draper, VFD chief, said emergency units began searching the building and evacuated students out of their rooms as they made their way to the top floor.
“When (the fire fighters) made it to the top floor they confirmed that it was an actual fire extinguisher that someone had discharged in the hallway,” Draper said. “That filled the space with the sodium bicarbonate from the extinguisher.”
Brooke Watson, a fourth floor Coyote Village resident, said she thought the fire alarms were a drill until she and her roommates opened their door to exit into the hallway.
“…I actually thought it was my alarm to get up, but then it got louder,” Watson said. “We were kinda going slow getting out, but then we opened the door and we realized there was a bunch of smoke in the hallway and we couldn’t see down the hallway.”
She said as they exited the building, the smoke was more dense in certain areas.
“It was pretty thick, like you couldn’t see the room next to us,” Watson said. “I was certainly a lot more scared at that point because we thought it was actually serious and not a fire drill.”
Video by: Bailey Milne/CROSS MEDIA COUNCIL
Draper said crews ventilated the building before students were allowed back into the residence hall. Students were allowed to go back to their rooms about an hour after they were evacuated.
The substance released from the fire extinguisher can irritate the lungs if someone is exposed to it for an elongated amount of time, but Draper said no students spent enough time in the building for that to occur. An ambulance was kept on scene in case a student sustained any injuries.
“We have fans that we set up and we also went through each apartment kind of ventilating that out. That 400 wing is going to have powder in the hallway until they get it vacuumed up and in some of the rooms the powder did get under the door,” Draper said.
Draper said the VFD will continue to investigate the incident, and said it will likely be completed by next week.
“It’s a serious thing to mess with the extinguishers or any of the fire protection systems that are in place,” Draper said. “From my understanding there’s video footage of it that we’ll be looking at later on.”
Tena Haraldson, USD’s communications director, said in an email to The Volante officials are reviewing security footage and interviewing people. Draper said a criminal case may be brought against the individual who discharged the extinguisher.
“The criminal case is all dependent on if we want to press charges. First let’s look and see what happened. Sometimes kids being kids gets a little bit too out of hand,” Draper said. “This is something that really disrupts a lot of things and (is) dangerous.”
(Photo: A ladder on a Vermillion Fire Department fire truck is extended outside of Coyote Village early Sunday morning. Heavy smoke was reported on the fourth floor of the building. After a preliminary investigation, VFD officials said the smoke was a substance released from a fire extinguisher. Malachi Petersen / CROSS MEDIA COUNCIL)
The Cross Media Council is comprised of The Volante, Coyote News, KAOR Radio, Coyote Communication and Coyote Creative.
