At approximately 8:40 p.m. this evening, a fire was detected outside of the Skutt Student Center building, near Kiewit Hall.
Arts & Sciences junior Anna Alexander was in the student center when someone notified her and her friends that the Kiewit Fitness Center was on fire. They headed in that direction, went outside and learned it was actually located underneath the connecting walkway between the Skutt Student Center and Kiewit Hall.
“Huge flames… I ran inside and pulled the fire alarm inside the door on the second level,” Alexander said. “Everyone just looked at me, but I told everyone to leave.”
After getting students to listen, she exited the building.
“[I said] don’t freak out, just leave… then people left,” Alexander told the Creightonian staff.
After the building was evacuated, students stood outside.
“We were standing outside, you could see all of these embers flying so we were all running away, so it was very intense,” she said.
Fire and water trucks responded to the scene. Public Safety also also responded, after the fire department.
Skutt Student Center has been reopened, but The Creightonian has been told that the pathway has been temporarily closed.
The cause of the fire is suspected to be due to a cigarette that was thrown into a dumpster behind the Skutt Student Center. Though it occurred underneath the walkway, according to Alexander, “the flames were big enough to hit onto the walkway”.
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An image from the early stages of the fire that happened outside Skutt this evening. The building was evacuated, and the fire department responded. The building has now been reopened.