Newtown Student Was One Of

The Last Out Of Burning Seton Hall Dorm

By Steve Bigham

As firefighters battled an inferno on the third floor of the north wing of a Seton Hall dormitory last week, Newtown resident Doug Randlett slept soundly just one floor above.

As students ran from the building in tears (some with severe burns) and as one young man jumped from a window – suffering broken limbs — Doug was still sleeping, unaware of the terror going on around him.

The Seton Hall freshman says he remained inside the dorm for at least 30 minutes after most students had left Boland Hall during the January 19 tragedy in South Orange, NJ that left three young men dead and four others in critical condition. When Doug finally did awaken to the third or fourth pounding on his door, he and his roommate spotted smoke in the room. They pulled back the curtains to see smoke billowing out the window directly below them. On the street, firefighters, ambulance personnel, police and their fellow students watched in horror. In the rooms directly below them, the young students could hears the sounds of people screaming. This was no drill.

Without panic, Doug woke another friend and the three calmly walked down a smoky hallway, down a flight of stairs, and outside into the freezing cold without so much as a scratch.

“It was odd. We were the last ones out of the building,” he said.

The 1999 Newtown High School graduate described the incident during an interview with The Bee this week.

“We live on the fourth floor – almost directly above where the fire was,” Doug explained Monday morning. “I was sound asleep. I slept through for about a half-hour after the fire alarm went off. I thought I heard somebody bang on the door but I wasn’t about to get up and go check because that happens a lot.”

For the 62 or so others who were injured, however, the story did not have such a happy ending. The three 18-year-old men who died were believed to be fighting the fire in the third floor lounge when they were overcome by smoke. Strangely, Doug, who left the campus for home soon after, did not learn that three students had been killed until he arrived back in Newtown.

“My biggest concern at that time was that I barely had enough gas to get home,” he said.

 By that time, the news of the tragic fire had reached the media, and Doug called his parents Judith and Stephen Randlett of 17 Indian Hill Road to say he was safe.

Doug, who planned to return to Seton Hall Wednesday, said there were 18 false alarms during the first semester of the school year. He admitted that the “boy who cried wolf” syndrome may have played a role in this tragedy.

“Most people ignored them,” he said, pointing out that the university was in the process of installing new fire hoses. “The old ones had been removed. The new ones hadn’t been put in yet.”

Doug said the incident has not left him questioning his own mortality, but it has left him stunned.

“I’m amazed how other people reacted to the whole situation. There is definitely a bit of sorrow. I  wished it hadn’t happened, but I don’t understand why people couldn’t leave,” he said.

Doug was expected to be relocated to a new dorm.

Boland Hall, a six story residence hall, houses 600 students.