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After several days of talks with University administration and staff, Brown Fire Safety Officer Sheryl Walsh announced that she was willing to give the Brown Candle Club one more chance at not setting a building on fire during one of its functions before forcing them to discontinue activities.
Walsh rationalized her decision, saying “College is all about trying new things and learning. What kind of school would we be if we didn’t let kids learn by giving them second chances? Well, technically this is their eighth chance, but the same principle still applies.”
The statement came a few days after the club’s most recent debacle. Last Friday night, Sayles Hall was engulfed in flames during the Brown Candle Club’s “Burning Down the House” fundraiser. Alicia Coates, the president of the Brown Candle Club, noted that the event’s name was extremely unfortunate in hindsight and emphasized that the Brown Candle Club had had no intentions of actually burning down the house.
The catastrophe occurred toward the end of the night and was caused by the centerpiece candle arrangement of the evening, which consisted of a bunch of tiny candles arranged in the shape of one big candle. One of the small candles was knocked over during the group’s traditional indoor beach volleyball game, and this set off a domino effect that quickly and efficiently set the entire room on fire. Thankfully, all the event’s attendees escaped without much more than a few horribly disfiguring burns.
Coates said that the Brown Candle Club would be careful to avoid future disasters. “I think our biggest problem was that the candles were shaped exactly like dominos,” said Coates. She emphasized that now that the club was aware of the problems posed by domino-shaped candles, they would switch to a sturdier model. Coates also mentioned that the ceremonial dousing of the room in gasoline before meetings may have to be discontinued.
