Photo by Dominic Feo | The Crow’s Nest
By Dominic Feo
Students who live in the Osprey Suites residence hall were in for a rude awakening when fire alarms woke them up at around 10 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 27.
Resident assistants sent messages to their floors through GroupMe that there were elevated carbon monoxide levels somewhere in the building. Police banged on students’ doors, only giving them a few minutes to grab their belongings.
After the buildings’ 375 residents were ushered outside by housing staff and the University Police Department (UPD) into a crowd located near the building, they were told that they should be able to return in an hour.
Still wearing what they slept in the previous night, students were forced to find somewhere else to go.
“Half the people here are walking around in socks,” said freshman political science major, Ava Schoennagel.
Due to the confusion surrounding the evacuation, students were unaware that they should have brought a day’s worth of belongings with them.
“I left everything else except for my phone, I didn’t bring my keys or anything,” said freshman criminology major, Isabella Gauthier.
Gauthier did make sure to bring her emotional support cat Phineas with her.
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Photo by Dominic Feo | The Crow’s Nest
“We had to chase him around the apartment because he knows what the alarm means so he was super scared,” she said.
Some students, however, waited hours for UPD to retrieve their beloved pets, while others were allegedly denied the retrieval of medicine, school supplies, and other items.
Losing access to school supplies meant that some students were unable to finish assignments due that day or attend class. Multiple students alleged that while most professors were accommodating, a few professors did not extend due dates or excuse absences.
The Osprey Suites building, located at 355 S. 6th Ave, also houses The Nest dining hall, which meant that the campus’ main dining location was unavailable to all students.
“Spending as much as I do on the meal plan, not having that available to me is inconvenient, especially for students who rely on the dining hall because Osprey doesn’t have kitchens [in dorms],” said freshman marine biology major, Taylor McLeod.
As the hours ticked by, students who were originally told it would be a short wait, now grew restless.
“It’s almost 5 p.m. and I don’t understand why they couldn’t have been more clear, right now we have no answers,” Schoennagel said.
At 5:20 p.m., director of housing at USFSP, Susan Kimbrough, sent an email to residents that said Osprey Suites and The Nest would remain closed overnight.
The email did not say when the building would reopen.
“Our emergency response team was activated immediately and is working with St. Petersburg Fire and Rescue personnel to assess the situation and continue to investigate, there have been no reported health issues,” Kimbrough said.
Prolonged exposure to carbon monoxide could have caused students to experience carbon monoxide poisoning. This would have caused students to suffer headaches, nausea, shortness of breath, or loss of consciousness if they were not evacuated.
The Nest is the St. Petersburg campus’ only dining hall, and services all students living on campus, in addition to commuters.
No official university communication was sent out to inform other students, faculty, and staff about the building’s closure.
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Later that day students were informed that they could retrieve their belonging from 5:30 to 8:00 p.m. escorted by housing staff and UPD.
As students waited in line, they were greeted by Officer Mark Lickenfelt, and campus therapy dog Snowbird who provided comfort.
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Dining services were temporarily relocated to the University Student Center. A buffet-style setup offered students a limited version of The Nest’s regular menu until 9 p.m.
USF Dining hosted a movie night complete with a popcorn stand where students watched “Howl’s Moving Castle” as they had dinner.
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In Kimbrough’s 5:20 p.m. email, students were encouraged to “return home or find temporary lodging options for this evening.”
For those who had nowhere to go, cots were provided in the University Student Center (USC) ballrooms, the Student Life Center (SLC) and rooms in the Science and Technology Building (STG).
At 7:30 p.m., housing sent a second email announcing that students could check into the USC ballrooms from 8:00 to 8:30 p.m. if they planned to sleep there for the night. 11 students took up the offer.
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Payton Ceglia is a freshman psychology major who slept at the USC because her family lives in New Jersey.
“Sleeping on the cots was very eerie and quiet, almost no one talked to each other,” she said.
Official communication sent at 9:20 a.m. the next morning, informed Osprey Suites residents that the building would reopen at 10 a.m.
“The elevated carbon monoxide levels reported earlier were traced to two hot water heaters, which will remain offline to ensure your safety,” Kimbrough said in the email. “There are two additional hot water heaters that are fully operational, so hot water will continue to be available throughout the residence hall.”
Non-Osprey residents received no official communication about The Nest’s reopening. Multiple students reported that the dining facility reopened at 8 a.m. on Jan. 28.
While most students are now back in their rooms, the exact cause of the water heater’s malfunction remains unclear.
The Crow’s Nest reached out to St. Pete Fire Rescue for more details and will update this story when we get more information.
This is a developing situation; The Crow’s Nest will continue to provide updates as they become available.