Early in the morning of December 13, 1977, a fire broke out on the fourth floor of Aquinas Hall, a woman’s dormitory at Providence College. Within thirty minutes, ten young women were dead – seven from the smoke and flames and three from jumping to escape the inferno. I was a sophomore at the school at the time and have vivid memories of the aftermath of the fire although I was at home here in Lowell the night it happened.
December 12, 1977 was the start of “reading period”, the time between the end of classes and the start of exams. I thought I’d get more studying done at home so I returned to Lowell for a few days, but my roommates and others remained and related events to me the next day. It snowed that night, the first of the season. The “quad” formed by McDermott, McVinney and Aquinas Halls became the site of a major snow ball fight involving nearly one hundred students. By 2 a.m., everyone was back in their dorm rooms, mostly asleep. The fire broke out shortly after that in a fourth floor room of Aquinas Hall, an older building that consisted of first floor lecture halls and three floors of rooms for woman residents. Although I’ve never seen an official report of the cause of the fire, I’ve been told that someone trying to dry out mittens made wet from the snowball fight left a blow dryer running inside a closet. Whatever the cause of ignition, the fire started in one of the rooms. I believe the three residents of that room all made it out. Not so many of their floor mates. Aquinas Hall was particularly susceptible to fire at that point because of a long tradition of a Christmas dorm decorating contest. The fourth floor was a top contender, having covered every square inch of the walls and ceiling of the hallway with decorations and crepe paper. The decorations provided deadly fuel to the fire, however, because once the flames made it out into the hallway, all the paper turned it into a tunnel of flame.
At about 6 am on the morning of the fire, an early rising relative had caught the news on TV and called my parents to report the fire and ask if they’d heard from me. Everyone was pleased I was safely in the adjoining room. Later that morning I drove back to the school. There was a memorial mass held that day in the gymnasium. It was a reminder of the importance of religion in getting through tragedy. Exams were postponed until after the Christmas break and everyone left for home. When we returned, a very intense fire safety program was implemented and strictly enforced, something that is very important to me even today. Six weeks later, four feet of snow descended on us as we endured the Blizzard of 78. Three years ago, on the 30th anniversary of the fire, I traveled back to the school for a memorial mass that included the dedication of an alcove of the newly constructed chapel that memorialized the ten fallen students. Fire can strike so, so fast. There’s no substitute for prudence and preparedness.
Monday, December 13th, 2010, 7:01 am | 
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February 1, 2011 at 5:56 pm
wow! i would have been about ..12..lived on hilltop…i remember.
god rest their souls
March 16, 2011 at 8:41 pm
A friend of mine, a nursing student (not attending PC) told me she treated one of the students in that dorm and wasn’t sure of the fate of her patient.
March 22, 2011 at 10:17 pm
Just a couple of corrections to your story. Seven women died that night. The other three died in the months following, the last one being around Easter, as I recall. PC said the official cause was the hair dryer, but I saw a a letter from PC’s insurance company absolving the girls of any responsibility. There was a goose neck lamp illuminating a manger scene in the hallway. It was plugged into the wall adjacent to the closet of Room 406, and it was commonly assumed that that was the cause. Everyone didn’t make it out of that room. The three roommates waited at the window, but two were unable to get enough air, and jumped and were killed.
Oh, and that floor (4 North) won the decoration competition that night.
March 23, 2011 at 5:44 am
Thanks for clarifying those facts. I know it’s still a painful event to recall, but it’s important to remember it as a reminder of why fire safety is so important. That’s one of the effects it’s had on me through the years.
May 29, 2011 at 7:29 pm
Does anyone remember one of the girls who died that night named Debbie Smith. She was a wonderful person.
May 29, 2011 at 8:27 pm
An anniversary remembrance:
http://www.thecowl.com/2.7830/college-remembers-aquinas-fire-victims-1.1105748
August 13, 2011 at 4:42 pm
i just can’t forget about barbara feeney, she was one of the girls that jumped. we played together since we were three. i also went to the anniversary mass in the chapel, i couldn’t catch my breath from crying, it still breaks my heart..your article was very good thank you sally
August 21, 2011 at 2:45 pm
Sally, I did not know Barbara Feeney but I did know Debbie Smith. She was a wonderful girl. Most of the girls were freshmen I believe but Debbie was the oldest girl. She was either a junior or a senior
October 19, 2011 at 9:51 pm
DickH,
How can I contact you? My father was a Providence firefighter at the time and he was the only one to pull out msot of those girls that night but I have a few questions for you.
December 13, 2011 at 6:10 am
My thoughts and prayers go out to all of the families who lost a daughter, a sister and a friend
December 14, 2011 at 9:12 pm
Like it was yesterday, every year at this time. Heartfelt remembrance to all who lost those close to them.
February 9, 2012 at 8:50 pm
I remember that night.
I left the library after dark. It was still lighly snowing and I passed a snowball fight in progress as I passed Aquinas Hall on my way to Guzman. It was near Christmas time, and the night air was filled with a mixture of school and home holiday expectations.
The night was the picture of college Christmas joy.
My next memory was waking in my top bunk with my dorm room door being kicked open and the overhead light blaring on. Together with my two roommates we raised-up swearing – until we saw the Friar standing in the middle of our room screaming if there was any women there. There were not and he was gone in a flash to the next room where we heard him scream the same question.
We rose and joined the chaos of the middle of the night confusion and mindless frenzy.
My next memory is standing on the backside of Aquinas in shocked silence along with several hundred other students. The firetrucks were still there with their ladders extended but the horror and bodies were gone. It was post terror. It was uncomprehensible shock. Aquinas girls who I knew floated past still in there nightgowns. Looking at me without seeing.
I look up and see the windows of the girls that jumped. Broken and smokey glass next to windows still decorated with reindeer and santas.
Was does Christmas make tragedy so much worse.
I did not know those girls but I still mourn them like family. I carry them and that night to this day. There is not a Christmas night, especially one on a beautiful night, that I don’t return to that snowball fight, when the laughter of young girls hung in a falling Cristmas snow.
February 9, 2012 at 9:01 pm
Thanks for sharing that memory, as painful as it is.
February 13, 2012 at 12:08 pm
I was there that night. I had just come from a party, getting there just ahead of the fire trucks. I watched 2 if the three girls on the ledge jump as I came up the stairs by Stephen’s hall.
They couldn’t get the trucks close enough because of the cars in the parking lot, so dozens of students pushed the cars out of the way on the snow slicked lot. There was still one girl on the ledge and I remember the fireman scrambling up the ladder as it was extending and swinging around. The ladder slammed into the wall just below the window and the fireman grabbed the girl and threw her down onto the ladder.
A few of us helped anyway we could, my friend Brian and I were feeding hose up the stairs when they brought down two bodies and put them on the ground 5 feet away from us. I will never forget looking over and seeing the still smoldering bodies and thinking “they’re dead, that’s why the just dumped them there, there are still girls alive upstairs” Glass started raining down and the fireman took over for us. I wandered away in a daze.
Later everyone tried to call home because it was originally reported that the fire was in a boys dorm. We listened to PRO, the local station for details, and one of the songs that kept playing was Billy Joel’s “Just The Way You Are” which forever after became known as the fire song to us.
I still see those two girls lying there smouldering, something I will never forget.
I was in Providence this weekend and I thought a lot about the fire, it still effects me.