**photo courtesy of Jana Cozadd Photography
Investigation of the cause of the fire at the Stockdale Center on the Monmouth College campus has been deemed undetermined at this time. Monmouth Fire Captain Craig Cozadd explains the fire was contained in the basement of the building and presented with high heat and poor visibility:
“What it was, was a fire that started in the storage room in the downstairs part of the building. It had a lot of fire load in there, lot of plastics that you would assume be with cooking. It was very difficult to get to. The problem that we were running into was there was high heat and very poor visibility because there was no windows because it is a complete concrete block structure and in the basement. There was nowhere for the smoke to go and it was very difficult to get to. The firefighters, including myself, had made several attempts to get in what I would call the front way. What ended up happening was we ended up taking an alternative route under the guidance of the maintenance department, we were able to come up on the backside of it and extinguish the fire.”
Mellinger Commons in the Center for Science and Business building is currently serving as the main dining area for Monmouth College students.
