The three remaining dorm buildings that were undamaged by a Monday afternoon fire at ASU West's new residence halls are scheduled to open for student occupation on Aug. 20 as planned, ASU West Spokeswoman Linda Benthiem said.
Nearly 100 firefighters from Glendale, Phoenix and Peoria battled the three-alarm fire at the newly-built residence building, which was the very first for West campus. It is called Las Casas.
The fire was contained to one of four buildings and did not cause any injuries.
The first fire team was dispatched at about 12:52 p.m., and it took nearly an hour and a half to tame the fire, said Phoenix Fire Capt. Chris Ketterer.
"Upon getting on the scene, they saw fire on the third floor and called out more units and raised it to a first alarm fire," he said. "Upwards of a hundred of fire firefighters were fighting the beast."
Ketterer said the cause of the fire and the cost of damages was not yet determined.
Firefighters were still on the scene putting out side-flames as of 4 p.m. Monday.
Construction for the 400-bed residence hall was completed at the time of the fire.
Ketterer said it was too soon to tell if the building is salvageable.
"We had four ladder pipes up with each nozzle dumping anywhere from 800 gallons of water per min, per nozzle," he said. "The pipes are necessary evil; they put out the fire, but usually the actual fire and the firefighting does damage on a building is not retrievable."
Stay tuned to the Web Devil for new developments on this story.
Reach the reporter at lynh.bui@asu.edu.
