Steph Valenti
Social Media Manager/Reporter
As PLU concluded the 2021-2022 school year, abandoned Foss hall caught fire on the last day of spring semester.
There was no one in the building, leaving injuries at zero.
Central Pierce Fire and Rescue received many calls, and fire trucks began rolling in shortly after 5:30 p.m. on Friday, May 27. The cause of the fire was not confirmed on site, although it was very likely an electrical fire, officials said.
“The wiring hasn’t been updated since the 70s, that’s why we don’t use it,” said a campus safety officer who was at the scene.
Flames and smoke were visible from a great distance. The fire was seen by witnesses from the west side of the building, and the campus safety officer stated that the fire was on the central first floor.
It was not until an hour after the firefighters began to arrive that the fire marshall arrived. By then, the fire was already out, but there was a lot of work left to do, including taking care of electrical and plumbing issues.
“I’ve been here 17 years, it’s the biggest one I’ve heard of,” said one of the dozens of firefighters on the scene.
Many students had already moved out for the Summer , but there were still several students around to witness the fire. Some even captured the event on video.
“We were just hanging out and packing in our apartment and saw a fire truck going down 125th,” said Joyce Lee, a former South Hall resident. “They just kept coming after that.”
All vehicles and teams responding to the fire left after four hours, as campus safety declared the situation cleared at 9:40 p.m.
As of mid-August, there hasn’t been much progress with the situation. The school has filed a claim with the insurance company, and is waiting for updates.
“We are still in a holding pattern while the insurance adjuster comes out tomorrow to review the damage,” said Ray Orr, the assistant vice president of the facilities department, on Aug. 17. “I am not sure how long after they come, we will get [more] information.”
The last fire that happened at PLU was on East Campus, on 121st St, which is also an abandoned building, the same campus safety officer said.
The fire department previously practiced training in the Foss building years ago before the pandemic, so the building was not completely unfamiliar for all of them.
See student-captured video of the event on The Mast’s Instagram page: @mastmedia
New image:
Taken by Mattie Tupper on July 18th
