Whoever set five fires in two buildings Thursday on the campus of the College of Mount St. Joseph may be responsible for the death of one student and injuries to another.
Daviene Hutsell, 28, a Business Arts major whose nickname was "Dove," suffered a seizure, then collapsed and was transported to a hospital where she later died.
Friends said she left a campus building after fire alarms began sounding in the Arts Building and Seton Hall.
They said she was stricken as more and more fire equipment began arriving on the Delhi Township campus.
Another person was treated for smoke inhalation.
Police from Delhi Township and the College of Mount St. Joseph spent all day Thursday gathering evidence in the case.
So far, no suspects have been identified, charged or arrested.
Delhi Township Fire Chief William Zoz said three fires were set in the Arts Building and two more on the fifth floor of Seton Hall, where 400 students live.
Four were in bathrooms and one was in a stairwell.
All the blazes were small and were extinguished by sprinklers in the buildings.
Authorities say they believe it’s a case of arson.
"I would venture to say at this particular point because of the multiple instances that there is someone that set the fires," Chief Zoz said. "It’s like every fire scene you get to. You assume it’s arson until we rule it otherwise."
The first fire was reported in the Arts Building at 10:54 a.m. and was out by the time firefighters arrived.
As crews prepared to leave the campus, multiple alarms started coming in and lasted for the next 20 minutes.
A mutual aid call brought fire companies from Cincinnati, Green Township, Colerain Township, Whitewater Township, Cleves, Harrison and other departments.
Freshman Wes Dadosky, of Anderson Township, had just gotten back to his dorm room from class when the fire alarm was activated.
"All of a sudden these ladies came running down the hall and saying, ‘Everybody needs to bet out of here, right now!,’" he recalled. "I was kind of scared."
Roommates Jenna Townsley, a sophomore, and Kim Dumont, a junior, were both asleep in their dorm room.
"I wasn’t real emotional," Townsley said. "I was kind of like, 'This is crazy.'"
At first, Dumont thought it was a fire drill.
"It was kind of annoying because I just wanted to stay in bed, but then they rushed us out," she recalled.
Once news started spreading that an arson investigation was underway, students and college officials said they were shocked.
"What if they set the fire where we were?," Townsley wondered out loud. "That’s pretty scary."
Mount St. Joseph Media Relations manager Jeannette Bryson said fire drills are routinely conducted on campus every semester.
"Everyone takes them seriously," she said. "You never really know if there is a fire or it’s a drill."
This time, it was real.
"It is a very scary thought," Bryson added. "You hope that this is it – that it’s contained – that it’s over."
Why someone would set fires in buildings containing hundreds of people is a question that remains unanswered.
Mount St. Joseph’s 2,150 students are finishing mid-term exams and getting ready to go on Spring Break.
Chief Zoz theorized that the state of the economy might be a factor.
"It’s just like everything else. With the economic times going on, you don’t know if anybody gets upset," he said.
The real motive won’t be known until whoever is responsible for the fires is caught.
