By Hank Huber


When an arsonist struck a room on the eighth floor of the residential dormitory Tower 3 at Buffalo State College on Dec. 7, 2002, the fire drove students from their homes and forced the floor’s closing indefinitely.

Four months later, a suspect waits while a grand jury deliberates on whether to hand up an indictment.

Residents of Tower 3 who had their lives and studies disrupted by the blaze shared their thoughts on what they went through, and what should happen to the alleged arsonist.

Buffalo State student and Tower 3 resident Carl Binger, a sophomore in the urban planning program, said he’s not sure what should happed to him, although he said that whoever did it should get what’s fair.

“If he’s going to put everybody’s safety in danger, I hope justice does their jobs,” he said.

Binger said he was in his room on the fifth floor when the fire broke out.

“This guy in Tower 4 called and said there was an explosion in the building. I didn’t believe him at first,” Binger said. “I got scared, it was crazy.”

Binger said that after the building was evacuated, everyone was taken to the Holiday Inn for temporary lodging. Even though he was allowed to return to his dorm room the following day, he said that he decided to take advantage of the full week that the hotel had allotted to students displaced by the fire.

“We had a clean room,” he said with a smile. “Plus it was exam week. It was a better place to study. That’s one good thing that came out of the fire.”

Buffalo State student Anthony Thompson, a junior in the anthropology program, had a different experience with the lodging situation. After coming home in the early morning hours after the fire, he said he walked up to his 10th floor room in Tower 3 and went to bed, only to be kicked out the next day with nowhere to go.

“I was treated wrong,” he said. “I walked right in past the police official, looked him in both eyes.”

He said he was upset that he wasn’t informed of the alternate housing.
“They didn’t tell me anything about the hotel, they just told me to get out.”

He said the person that set the fire deserves some degree of punishment.

“He definitely endangered the lives of students,” he said. “I think he should do some type of time.”

Although he said the person should be jailed, he hopes he gets the help he needs.

“He needs some one to talk to,” he said. “He’s obviously got some problems.”

Thompson said he thinks that a lot of trouble could be avoided if the resident assistants or directors took more interest in students’ lives.

“There needs to be more RA and RD interaction with the students,” he said. “I know there’s a counseling center, but they should stop in and say ‘How ya doing?’,” he said.