First off, let me say I'm not sure exactly what has been said throughout the entire thread of conversation, because, honestly, I don't have the energy to read it all, but I'll tell you what happened from a current student's perspective. There is no way I can convince you I am not lying about who I am, what I saw, or what they told us what happened as opposed to what you may have heard or read, but I know that I am an eye-witness and that counts for something.
We were woken up around around 2:30 on Thursday morning by one of the night security. He came into the north-side entrance door yelling to get up, get out of bed, and get dressed because there was a fire. Now, not a week and a half previously, the fire alarm went off in the girl's dorm. It was nothing major; it went off by accident because it had not been reset when it was checked that day. So, of course, we thought maybe it was our dorm. Then we found out that it was the Academic building.
We were all converged in the common room; they had just double-checked each room to make sure that no one was forgotten. Most of us only had on pjs and flip-flops. We were told that no matter what we saw, we were to walk quickly up to the gym, keep on the far side of the road and not to interfere with what the firefighters were doing. So that's what we did.
Our dorm is the furthest one from the Academic building, and subsequently, we were woken up last because we were not in immediate danger. The first dorm is right across from the Academic building, so they were woken up immediately and escorted to the gym as soon as possible. The next dorm, the one between the first and ours, the last, is empty and has been for some time. Understand that if it had been safer for us to stay in the dorm they would have kept us there, but it wasn't. The fire, by the time we were passing it, had consumed the entire building and the flames were taller than the new Admin building (about three stories) which had been added on right next to it. Luckily, because there is a brick wall between the Academic building and foyer that leads to the new Admin, the fire did not spread. If it had, however, they were worried that if the new Admin had caught, that it would spread to the trees next to it, catch across the street to the first dorm and then move on down through the other two. Since the trees and buildings all share close quarters, it was a very valid concern. We were moved up the gym because it is the only building that can be safely said is fire proof as it is almost completely made of cement and brick.
Despite the chaos, everyone behaved themselves. There was no arguing, fighting, or anything of the like, only a couple snippits when water bottles were brought to us. I think everyone was in shock because most of our time during the week was spent in there. One of the staff let us know how grateful he was by our good behavior, because he lived right down the hill from the burning building, and not having to stress out over us acting out so he could take care of his family was a blessing to him. It was about 5 or so before they released us back to the dorms, and by then the Academic building had collapsed and was just a burning pit. There was no damage to the old Admin building, which is on the other side of the Academic, only to the awning between them, which looks funny having one half of it gone or burned while the other half is in tact.
They kept all of the girls down by the lake front all the next day, and all of the boys down at the playing field. All of the staff were called in, but no one caused any real trouble. We found out that they might never find out the source of the fire, but they suspect from what they saw that it was started in one of the offices nearer to the old Admin, and it was probably from an electrical shortage. The only thing that saved the old Admin from not being burned was the wind blowing the fire away from it.
Temporary water measures were taken because the fire department used the water from our water tank to contain the fire, and when that ran out, they pumped the lake to put it out. At first, they said the school would not have a stable water supply for a week, because one of the water pipes needed repair. When I was there last, the tank had refilled but everyone was advised to take short showers. The phone lines went down, so the counselors called the parents by their cellphones. By the time I left for this break about 25 temporary lines had been set up so kids could call their parents themselves. And since our server is destroyed, there is no internet access for anyone.
Night security for the rest of the week took shifts patrolling around the remains as the ashes flared up a couple of times. Other than that, the Academic building is completely gone. It is now a pit of charred wood and metal; the metal being the door and window frames from the downstairs floor, which are still standing (albeit crookedly). The server was held in the Academic building; from what I saw it crashed down from the first floor when the building collapsed and melted. The hard copies of our transcripts and records burned. But what will be missed most are the pictures and crests of each peer group that lined the halls, of people who were at HLA and left, and some people in those pictures have died since leaving. For most of the oldest peer groups, those were the only copies of those pictures left. I, personally, drew the crest for my peer group when we first formed. And because our server is gone, I lost all of my personal documents and photos, one of which being the photo that went above my peer group's crest, and so did every other student, and there is probably no back-up for them.
All in all, I think that the situation was handled very well, despite any problems HLA may have. Life will move on, just like it always does. Classes are probably going to be held in the Lodge, the Library (which survived), the gym, and down at lake front.
So quit your whining, yammering, and complaining about a place you do not have to live at, because the students there complain enough as it is to compensate for all of you.
And stop bashing Len. The staff at HLA are doing the best they can with what they have, and right now, that's not much. Unless you have met the man personally, attacks on him on the internet are worse than pathetic, they are cowardly. I may not like Len, or most of the staff, or the HLA establishment as a whole, but if I do have a problem I do not slink around in the shadows and make fun of them behind their backs, I voice them to the staff directly. So unless you can say half of what you wrote here to his face, or have it passed along by the proper authorities to be said to his face, I advise you to keep your opinions to yourself. It doesn't matter what you say online about them unless you personally interact with each of them; because chances are they're not going to read it, and they're not going to care what you say if they do.
