The fire that took place in the second floor women’s bathroom of the Liberal Arts building on Thursday, November 14 is being investigated as an act of arson.
According to Public Relations Officer Lt. Mark Lee at the West Windsor Police Department, the fire was started by someone lighting a toilet paper dispenser on fire.
He went on to say that even though the fire was small, the burning plastic casing caused large amounts of black, heavy smoke.
Some students say they are concerned that the culprit has not been found.
Second year Civil Engineering student Elliot Hammerstone, said “There are a lot of issues with pure order, and even fear of showing up here. People might not want to show up.”
However, Lt. Lee says that the Police Department is not worried about a serial arsonist because of the amount of time that has passed since the fire.
According to college president Dr. Jianping Wang, the fire was discovered when Security Commander Michael Flaherty was walking through the Liberal Arts building and noticed smoke coming out of the vent in the door of the women’s bathroom. Commander Flaherty immediately notified emergency services, and the building was evacuated.
An employee, who asked to remain anonymous for job safety reasons, said a security officer showed them cell phone pictures of the burned out wall of the bathroom and the toilet paper dispenser, and said that Security Commander Michael Flaherty had found a note at the scene.
When asked about the note, College President Dr. Jianping Wang stated “I have never seen one, our security didn’t take a picture and show me the note. I don’t know where that came from. Some people just have too much time on their hands.”
Students and faculty did not receive a notification message about the issue through the college’s emergency alert system until five hours after the fire occurred.
When asked about the process of issuing an MAlert Dr. Wang said there are several steps and that it had to go through the PR office, but said of the timing of the alert on November 14, “It had nothing to do with the process. It has everything to do with the [phone] line was down.”
She explained there had been ongoing problems with the campus phone and wi-fi services throughout the week, and they are necessary for activating the alert system.
As previously reported, when asked for comment about how emergency notification is handled in the case of a technology problem, Dr. Jianping Wang, said, “We are actually right now, examining [what we do] in the event of an emergency….What do we do if the internet is down?”
The college has also not put out any public statement that mentions a fire, causing many students to feel uneasy about the college’s response.
As first year engineering student Tre Cook put it, “I don’t feel too good about that because class is canceled, and shut down. But now I know that it was a fire. It wasn’t through Mercer though. I still want to know what that fire was about, because I’ve heard so many different things, so I’m like what is the true story? They should be in touch with that.”
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If you have any information that could assist the West Windsor Police Department in their investigation, please contact their tip line at 609-799-0452.
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