The Collegian

Issue date: 10/8/09 Section: News

At 4 a.m. this morning, senior security dispatcher, John Hann received a fire alarm. Someone had lit Hillsdale College's Homecoming Bonfire 17 hours too early.  Hann estimates the blaze started between 3:30 and four a.m. The perpetrators used some kind of accelerant to get the fire going. "They definitely had a bucket of gasoline and diesel that they doused it with," he said.  Once it was started, it burned so quickly the fire department had problems extinguishing the blaze, he said.  "At about four in the morning the [Hillsdale County City] Fire Department tried to put it out with their fire hoses but the fire was so hot and so big that they couldn't put it out," Hann said. "They just controlled the burn and let it burn down and eventually after putting two fire truck loads of water in the water and it still wouldn't go out, they got it down to pretty low in the ground."  Around 7:30 a.m., maintenance came to the scene and finished burning scraps that were littered around the fire, Hann said.  At 11:15 a.m., the piles of wood were still burning, orange smoke billowing against white clouds. Two-feet high piles of ash smoldered amidst a field of puddles.  Although there may be no direct cost to the college as they receive wood all year-long for free, the prank does make light of the college's effort on behalf of students, Hann said.  "Hillsdale collects the wood a long time beforehand as something nice for students and whoever did this couldn't care that the school has done all that work, to collect all that wood and plan it," Hann said.  Director of Student Activities Rebekah Dell said the prank isn't stopping the plans for the bonfire.  "It may be a little bit muddy," she said, "but we're still a go." Dell plans on picking up extra wood pallets from local businesses in the community but said she doesn't know how much wood will be available. "We're just going to get as much as we can," she said. And as for all the extra work involved in planning a bonfire twice? "It certainly is not an ideal situation," she said. "[It wasn't] very courteous of whoever lit the fire."

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