A Fire in the Dorm in the 1960s

In 2026, CSDR has been around for 73 years to serve and educate some 4,000 students altogether.

After digging around long-time staff to see if we ever had a fire on campus, the answer is yes. The horse mouth for the affirmation is Thomas Langdale, a dorm counselor. Tom was very hard-of -hearing (from the Deaf perspective) and wore hearing aids to function fairly well in the hearing world. Tom joined the residence hall staff in 1966 and worked for 13 years until 1979 when he left CSDR grudgingly.

In response to my question of whether we ever saw a fire, Tom affirmed we did have one fire that broke out in the late 1960s during his weekend duty. It was in those days that students were allowed to stay on campus for the weekend until June 1973.

This was a standard bedroom with bed furnishings provided for residents’ living comforts for all dorms.

Tom gave his account that the fire sparked in the back room in Rubidouxi II. Someone was ironing clothing. He placed the hot iron upright on the iron board and against the window curtain. He left the room unsupervised with the iron was still on with heat. The iron heat soon sparked a fire on the curtain. The fire became bigger and bigger as the fire engulfed the curtains. The air heat and smoke rose to the ceiling.

All the dorm bedrooms had the sprinkler pipes above the ceiling with the shower heads protruding below the ceiling for heat sensor and spraying water.

As you guess it, the heat triggered the shower heads to spray water throughout the bedroom, wetting everything and flooding the floor. The curtain fire was put out quickly, thanks to the ceiling shower heads as designed.

As expected, the fire crew from the city came, but the fire had been totally extinguished. They inspected the room and declared all was safe. Dorm counselors and boys pitched in to clean the wet mess.

CSDR has had a good safety record on campus with only one small fire since its inception in 1953.

This fire story came out only because I dug aggressively for long-lost stories that people forgot about. As a determined investigative journalist, I love to find story treasures. Please wait for me while I dig around for some more.

At left is myself as a freshman with Tom Langdale in Palomar III in 1972. Tom was noted for using flowery English with lots of American English idioms. I learned lots of idioms from him. Tom was an outstanding dorm counselor with an interest in the welfare of the boys under his supervision.

Kevin Struxness, ’76, MA

Editor, CSDR Old Times

3 June 2026