August was an interesting month for some residents of the Courtyard Village, better known as the plexes. Most recently, on the evening of Thursday, August 28, a carbon monoxide detector in the mechanical room in the North plex basement went off.
Campus maintenance was notified, and they discovered a ventilation problem. Head of Maintenance Scott Simmelink said that because it had been a very hot and humid day, the ventilation system that releases carbon monoxide outside of the building had not been working well.
Maintenance called the city gas company who measured the carbon monoxide levels in the mechanical room and in the plex rooms. The levels of carbon monoxide were considered safe and were far below the carbon monoxide exposure standard.
“We initially evacuated everybody (10 plexes) just to be on the safe side though,” said Marlon Haverdink, Director of Residence Life.
Because of the basement plexes’ proximity to the mechanical room, these rooms were the most affected by the ventilation issues. The residents of the basement plexes were given the option to return to their plexes or to stay somewhere else for the night.
Carbon monoxide detectors are located in the basement of each plex. Haverdink said the detectors are checked regularly to ensure they are working properly. After the carbon monoxide gas inspection, improvements were made to the ventilation system to help prevent future problems.
Although Northwestern’s campus has experienced issues with carbon monoxide before, another event that occurred on Friday, August 22 was a “first” for the college.
Around 6 a.m. a woman, whose identity is not being released, entered the basement of the South plex. She proceeded to enter one of the rooms — which was not locked — and took the room’s fire extinguisher. The woman re-entered the hallway, opened the door of the other basement plex and discharged the fire extinguisher at pipes in the ceiling which were exposed by a missing ceiling tile.
The beeping of the fire alarm woke Ashley Carhuff, who lives across the hall from the room the woman had entered first. When Ashley walked out of her bedroom into the living room of her plex, she saw the unfamiliar woman in the hall through the open door. There appeared to be smoke.
Carhuff asked the woman what she was doing and the woman told her there was a fire in the basement.
“I had a mini panic attack looking for a fire,” Carhuff said.
After finding no fire, Carhuff realized what she saw was not smoke, but discharge from the fire extinguisher. The woman took the fire extinguisher and left the basement of the North plex. Carhuff sensed something was not right, so she followed the woman outside.
Carhuff asked the woman who she was. The woman said she worked for maintenance but when Carhuff asked her where the maintenance building was she did not know. Carhuff was able to get the name of the woman and take a picture of her as she walked away.
Carhuff did not call the police because the woman did not seem threatening. Carhuff, an exercise science major, did however contact Jen Rodgers, her kinesiology instructor. Rodgers told Carhuff to contact head of campus security, Peter Boerema. Boerema notified the police, who were able to apprehend the woman later that morning.
The police were able to use the name and photo that Carhuff provided to find the woman in question.
The woman had been in police custody prior to this incident and suffers from mental illness. The Sioux County Attorney’s office told Boerema it is more concerned with seeing the woman receive treatment than pressing charges.
Nothing except the fire extinguisher was stolen from either apartment, but maintenance did have to clean up residue from the fire extinguisher that drifted into both basement plexes. A new fire extinguisher was purchased to replace the stolen one. The original extinguisher was later recovered near the art building and was found completely discharged.
Carhuff said that residents in both plexes are very careful about locking their doors at night as well as during the day when no one is there.
“The situation could have been potentially bad, but everything worked out,” Carhuff said.
Boerema said this event was a good reminder that even in Orange City, we need to take the necessary safety precautions.
“The reason we are a safe community is because people are smart,” Boerema said. “We need to continue to be smart in order to stay a safe community.”
Boerema sent two emails to students this week providing campus safety tips and a list of emergency and non-emergency phone numbers. His hope is to prevent similar situations from happening again.
