It's usually not a good thing to watch a dorm go up in flames.
However, as part of a fire safety demonstration, that's just what a crowd of William Woods University students did Wednesday afternoon at the Fulton Fire Department. Students were shown what could happen if a candle were left unattended in a room. The mock room, built by FFD with donations from WWU and Sutherlands, resembled what a real dorm might look like, complete with a bed, TV, desk, chair and clothing.
Firefighter Todd Gray said the fire demonstrated what could happen if a candle fell into a trash can inside a residence hall room. In 15 seconds, students heard a smoke alarm go off. In one minute's time, the fire had spread fast, engulfing the bed. Gray announced that the heat temperature had reached 1,100 degrees at the two-minute mark. At two minutes and 40 seconds, firefighters Todd Pritchett, Matt Morice, Tyler Ginnever and Greg Luebbert used two hoses to extinguish the flames, leaving behind a black, charred skeleton of a room.