Appliance cited as cause of DePauw dormitory fire

GREENCASTLE, Ind. -- An electrical appliance was the source of a weekend fire that caused $1 million in damage at a DePauw University dormitory, fire officials said Tuesday.\nInvestigators were unable to pinpoint one appliance as the source because there were several appliances in the room where it started, Jeff Mace, the city's assistant fire chief said.\nThe Sunday morning fire on the fourth floor of Rector Hall displaced 116 students, who are now staying in fraternity and sorority houses and a local hotel. No students were injured.\n"There's nothing we can put our finger on and say it was this stereo or this TV," said State Fire Marshal Tracy Boatwright. "A lot of the electrical appliances were destroyed and can't be found. But we're very satisfied that it's an undetermined fire of an electrical nature."\nInvestigators could not determine if the fire started because of a spark, an overloaded circuit or a malfunctioning appliance, Boatwright said.\nBuilt in 1917, Rector Hall is the oldest dormitory at DePauw, a liberal arts college with 2,200 students.\nThe building's wiring was safe and relatively new, although the building did not have sprinklers, Boatwright said.\nNext week, university officials planned to consider a multimillion dollar renovation of Rector, Mason and Lucy halls that would have included sprinklers.\nDePauw officials said they hope to rebuild Rector Hall.\nAlso Tuesday, students from Wabash College, an all-male school in Crawfordsville that is DePauw's archrival in athletics, donated $1,000 from their student senate budget to aid DePauw's recovery.