Fire in Litchfield Tower A prompts evacuation

A fire on the eighth floor of Litchfield Tower A Monday night prompted the building’s evacuation.

The fire originated from the eighth floor, and someone inside the building pulled the fire alarm, according to Pitt spokesman John Fedele. The call to emergency services came at approximately 5:35 p.m. on Monday, Fedele said, and Tower A was evacuated. 

There were no injuries in the fire, according to Fedele, and Pitt Police and the Pittsburgh Bureau of Fire were still investigating the cause at the time of publication.

Alex Nally, a freshman economics major, lives on the seventh floor of Tower A, and said his floor’s fire alarm did not go off. Nally said a woman knocked on dorm room doors telling students to evacuate. 

Jonathan Hranek, a freshman psychology major, was in his dorm room on the eighth floor when he began to smell smoke and the alarms sounded. 

It was “pretty thick, grayish smoke,” Hranek said, and he immediately evacuated once he heard the alarms. 

“I walked downstairs and was like, ‘Oh my god,’” he said amidst crowds of students in the Towers Lobby.

Pitt did not send out a campus text or email alert about the fire, which Fedele said was because the fire was not a “campus-wide” emergency. 

As of approximately 7:15 p.m. Fedele said all Tower A residents except those on floors seven and eight re-entered the building. 

Fedele confirmed at 9:30 p.m. that between 12 and 14 students were displaced from the fire, and said Student Affiars typically offers living accomodations to displaced residents in available University housing. 

Representatives from Pitt Police did not respond to multiple requests for comment by the time of publication. 

This story has been updated.