Fire at the UNO South Campus Dorms

[Brad]

Photo from Evan Ludes:

[iamjacobm]

Woah.

[Coyote]

Anyone know which one is building G?

[Brad]

From KETV's photo on twitter it looks like its in the corner over by the "older" Scott Village The one next to the building that is more than just housing.

[Brad]

Action three just reported a Second Alarm.

[jessep28]

I've got my police scanner app on and with all the parking lots in that U shape, the police are having a tough time keeping traffic out of the area.

[Brad]

Omaha Police Helicopter Able 1 photo:

[Brad]

Another shot from Able 1

[Garrett]

Bottom right of the X:
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.2436358 ... a=!3m1!1e3

[nebugeater]

That does not look good. Hope everone got out.

[Garrett]

http://www.ketv.com/news/uno-fire-coverage/23241082 Livestream by KETV

[Coyote]

Bottom right of the X:
https://www.google.com/maps/@41.2436358 ... a=!3m1!1e3

Thanks. That is where I thought but this gives a better visual.

[Brad]

Just drive by, they still seem to be having the occasional flair up. The damage is really bad!

I live on 52nd street and you can really smell it.

[Coyote]

UPDATE on the ‪ScottVillage‬ apartment fire at the University of Nebraska at Omaha:

- 1 fire fighter taken to nearby hospital non-life threatening injuries
- UNO says all students accounted for
- 40-50 students displaced

8 UNO Hockey players lived in the Dorm.

[GetUrban]

Wow, glad they all made it out safe. It's way too early to know for sure, but from the first photo, it looks like it could've started on a balcony and spread quickly up into the roof structure. Time will tell.

[justnick]

UPDATE on the ‪ScottVillage‬ apartment fire at the University of Nebraska at Omaha:

- 1 fire fighter taken to nearby hospital non-life threatening injuries
- UNO says all students accounted for
- 40-50 students displaced

8 UNO Hockey players lived in the Dorm.

important

[cdub]

I guess this is the upside of the old bunker like dorms I used to live in. They wouldnt have burned nearly as well. Construction prices and owners outlook on the longevity of the buildings leads to lots of wood only nowadays. I lived in a few that might have contained a bomb blast to a single room.

[Coyote]

Authorities release cause of UNO apartment fire

On Thursday, fire officials confirmed the fire started as a result of a discarded cigarette on the second-floor balcony of Scott Village's building G, near 63rd and Woolworth streets.

Authorities said the fire was originally believed to have started on the third floor, but investigators discovered the origin on the second floor.

"With the winds today, it made it very difficult. Once the fire communicates into the attic space, the truss roof construction, there's not a whole lot to slow it down," said Battalion Chief Tim McCaw.

[iamjacobm]

I have to think the dorms are supposed to be smoke free.

[nebugeater]

I have to think the dorms are supposed to be smoke free.

I bet they are too but I also would guess the balcony is a grey area that some would use as a smoking area.

[GetUrban]

I'm still surprised the building didn't have a dry-pipe sprinkler system in the combustible concealed attic spaces and also protecting each exterior deck. If was required to have sprinklers in the rest of the building, it should have had them there too. So far, I haven't found any exception in the 2006 IBC (adopted by Omaha) that would exempt those spaces. ..haven't checked the Omaha amendments to the 2006 IBC or Life safety Code yet though.

(see the Building With Wood thread in the General Discussion area for more discussion on the topic.)

[skinzfan23]

I am pretty sure the balconies are supposed to be smoke-free as well, but probably hard to constantly enforce. We lived at The Oaks apts behind the Ralston Arena last year and people would always smoke out on their balconies. I hated to be the mean person but I turned our next-door neighbor in because the smoke was always rolling in our windows and would stagnate in our apt.

At our apt before that one, in Cedar Rapids, IA, the apt directly behind us had people out smoking on the deck and they put their cigarette out on the wooden deck and left it there. The deck started on fire and was completely totaled. It is crazy to think they they were doing that and we didn't even know. Our apt easily could have gone up as well.

[bbinks]

Sad that one persons negligence can cause this. The photos from the recent apartment fires tell the same story.

[jessep28]

Sad that one persons negligence can cause this.  The photos from the recent apartment fires tell the same story.

When I lived in the Papillion/LaVista area, in 2010-2011 there were I believe three apartment fires, two in LaVista and one in Ralston, within a six month timeframe. I think that they were all smoking related too.

[Coyote]

UNO dorm fire came amid push for campus smoking ban; ballot questions to gauge support

Students at the University of Nebraska at Kearney last week overwhelmingly approved a nonbinding resolution to make UNK tobacco-free. Chancellor Doug Kristensen will have the final say on that campus.

Creighton University, Clarkson College and Nebraska Methodist College are all tobacco-free. The University of Nebraska Medical Center eliminated its “smoking huts” five years ago in keeping with its role as a health promoter and disease preventer.

[skinzfan23]

According to World Herald, the dorm is going to be rebuilt, possibly by this fall.

[skinzfan23]

Sounds like UNO is making a push to be smoke-free. Wish it was that way when I went there.