The Blaze

"Fire in Ruffner." Longwood student Philip Shaw makes the call to campus police at 9:22 p.m. on April 24, 2001.

Within minutes, Sgt. Roger Sudsberry confirms flames in the top floor of West Ruffner, then calls for all available local firefighting units.

Sudsberry enters Grainger Hall while Officer Russell Dove goes through Colonnades residence halls calling for the evacuation of all occupants.

Alarms go off in French, Tabb, South Tabb and South Ruffner. Resident Assistants along with Colonnades Residence Education Coordinator Casey Blankenship bang on doors and get students out of the buildings then away from the fire and across High Street.

After 347 students are evacuated, all rooms are inspected. Students are instructed to check in at Lancer gym and encouraged to call home. Student Affairs sets up mattresses in Lancer, but so many students have friends taking them in that none stay overnight in the gym. Hours later, Resident Assistant Tricia Ivey realizes she has sprained her ankle; otherwise, not one student is injured.

Campus Police Chief Charles Lowe arrives at the scene and, along with Dove and Officer John Thompson, goes into first floor South Ruffner to be sure disabled students are evacuated. Then the three move through the Colonnades, knocking on every door and locking rooms behind them.

Within minutes of the call from the college, seven area fire departments have been dispatched.

Farmville Fire Chief Tim McKay arrives on the scene and sees that West Ruffner is lost and the Rotunda is burning. He is told that all students have been evacuated but sends firefighters to search the buildings, a third check.

As incident commander, McKay maintains contact with President Patricia Cormier and Executive Vice President for Administration and Finance Dave Harnage as well as Farmville Police Chief Stuart Dunnavant for traffic and crowd control and Town Manager Gerald Spates for coordinating town equipment and personnel.

In all, 175 volunteers from 11 area departments fight the fire for 15 hours using 2.2 million gallons of water. Firefighters and equipment come from Farmville, Rice, Meherrin, Hampden-Sydney, Pamplin, Prospect, Darlington Heights, Appomattox, Cumberland, Dillwyn, and Toga volunteer fire departments with Burkeville and Charlotte Court House held in reserve.

Students bring firefighters cookies; Aramark makes them breakfast. Local businesses help with food, fuel and equipment.

Thousands of people visit the Longwood College web site for images and news of the fire and its aftermath.

The Aftermath

At daylight on Wednesday, firefighters battle hotspots, but the fire is under control.

No lives have been lost; no serious injuries suffered.

There is no Rotunda, no West Ruffner, no East Ruffner. There are only remains. A scene from the Civil War burning of Richmond.

Twisted metal, the remains of a roof, juts from the third floor of Grainger.

But the wet-brick walls of Grainger stand to the west. Flames have reached the attic of fourth floor South Ruffner and no farther. The Blackwell "smoker" and dining hall remain to the south.

To the north, across High Street, onlookers sit on the curb; some just stare; some weep.

TV satellite trucks line High Street as reporters from Richmond, Lynchburg, Roanoke and Charlottesville keep up regional, state and national coverage of the fire and the loss of the "heart" of the campus.

Colleges and universities throughout the Commonwealth call and offer assistance.

At 11 a.m. President Cormier, along with Executive Vice President Dave Harnage, addresses all students, faculty and staff in Jarman Auditorium. She says, "Our Ruffners are gone."

Explaining that a fire of this magnitude affects many other areas of the campus, Dr. Cormier announces that remaining classes and all exams are cancelled. Semester grades will be based on work already completed. Students are encouraged to contact their professors regarding exceptions. Students will be required to vacate their residence hall rooms by Saturday, noon. To protect the health and safety of students housed in the Colonnades residence halls, they will not be allowed back into South Ruffner, Tabb, South Tabb or French before the Saturday moveout. Faculty will not soon have access to any items in their offices in Grainger.

Mr. Harnage says to students, "If you haven't already done so, CALL HOME."

In the Q & A that follows, one evacuated student asks how she can get keys to get into her car; another student asks where she can donate clothes for the people who cannot get into their rooms.

President Cormier reassures those assembled, "I have faith in the strength and character of this institution, and we will recover. The damage is severe, but we will overcome it because it is bricks and mortar." She acknowledges firefighters who put their lives on the line, physical plant and security staff who worked all night, students who went home and baked cookies and brought them to firefighters, and the citizens and employees of Farmville who were "by our sides all the night." She concludes, "Not one student was injured, not one student died. This campus is a campus of character and you showed it in all of your glory last night. I thank you so much."

An exodus of students begins and continues to Saturday.

Campus police, reinforced by Information and Instructional Technology Services staff, patrol the perimeter of the site, 24 hours a day, every day.

Mourners leave poems and blue and white flowers in the security fence.

Network affiliates from NBC, CBS, and ABC covered the fire, along with CNN, MSNBC, the Associated Press, the Washington Post and major newspapers accross the Commonwealth.

The Recovery

The Commonwealth hires INRECON, a company of recovery specialists. INRECON pulls together teams for clearing refuse, drying buildings and recovering and drying property from residence halls and offices.

Almost immediately alumni, friends, even prospective students, ask "How can we help? Where can we donate money to rebuild?" and The Rotunda Fund is established for donations (click here).

Faculty displaced from Grainger set up temporary offices and work at assigning grades.

Printing Services makes arrangements with the University of Virginia to reprint 5,000 Commencement Programs destroyed in the fire.

On May 1, the college announces that Virginia State Police have released buildings affected by the fire to the supervision and responsibility of the college and have ruled that arson is not suspected.

On May 3, students return to rooms in French and South Tabb to retrieve their belongings. They arrive at designated times and are assisted by Residence Education and Housing staff and professional movers.

On May 5, alumni return to a changed campus for Milestone reunions (click here).

May 7 through 10, students return at designated times to rooms in Tabb and South Ruffner. Some rooms are virtually untouched; in some cases, floors, ceilings and walls are damaged. Highly absorbent materials, including furniture, mattresses and bedding, have been moved to the tennis courts to dry. Anything on the floor has been stacked on furniture. Due to drying equipment in the hallways and occupancy limits set by the State Fire Marshal, each student can be accompanied by only one other person. Professional movers carry boxes from rooms to outside the buildings.

INRECON teams enter Grainger offices, load items onto wooden carts then push these out of the building where faculty in hard hats decide what they will take home, what they will trash and what they will consign to the "drying room" set up by INRECON in the basement of Blackwell.

On May 12 the sun shines, and Longwood Commencement 2001 proceeds with all the pomp and ceremony the college can muster. Graduating seniors, faculty and staff wear silver and blue ribbons, provided the Barnes & Noble Campus Bookstore, as reminders of the traditions of the past and the challenges of the future. Another reminder is the ringing of the Longwood Bell, first installed in a cupola on the roof of South Ruffner Hall in 1897, now restored and displayed in the library. A crowd of approximately 7,000 joins the celebration of new beginnings.

For summer 2001, classes and conferences are being held as scheduled. Fall admissions are right on target with 880 new freshmen and 180 transfer students expected to enroll for 2001-02.

From the first day after the fire, President Cormier has said, "The Ruffners are going to be rebuilt and they will be rebuilt in the way in which they were designed."

The Ruffners complex had been gutted for restoration: oil and canvas paintings from the interior dome had been removed for conservation; the statue dubbed Joanie on the Stony (see story page 20) had been relocated to the dining hall. Portraits of college presidents, bronze plaques and the doors to the main entrance were removed several months ago. Of the few artifacts remaining, the slate step at the main door has been located in the rubble and removed.

The Rotunda Fund has received more than $175,000 in donations; the General Assembly and Governor have signed emergency measures to expedite rebuilding.

The Longwood community has a new sense of commitment and a new appreciation of the excellence, professionalism and caring among its own. In a few years, Longwood will have a new Rotunda, new Ruffners, a new heart. It will not be the original, but it will be like Longwood Ð built on more than 100 years of tradition and well equipped for the future.