College student Neil Gajare charged with arson

A small fire in Rodin College House forced students to wait in the Harrison lobby early Wednesday morning.

Updated April 22, 10:43 p.m.

College student Neil Gajare has been arrested and charged with arson in connection with a fire in Rodin College House early this morning.

Gajare, 22, was still going through processing last night and it was unclear whether he would be released on bail, according to the Philadelphia Police.

Police allege that Gajare, a Rodin resident, started the fire at about 2 a.m. today by spraying a can of butane - the chemical found in butane lighters - and lighting it on fire with a cigarette lighter.

Police say he was standing in the elevator bank, which caused material in a nearby recycling bin to catch fire.

The sprinkler system extinguished the fire but produced massive amounts of water that caused damage to all four elevators and property throughout Rodin. The entire building was evacuated at 2:13 a.m.

No injuries were reported.

Gajare has been removed from the College House, and the Vice Provost for University Life was evaluating his status as a student as of this afternoon.

Gajare previously attended Northwestern University, where he faced charges related to anti-Semitic graffiti found in a Northwestern dormitory in January 2006.

He was charged with institutional vandalism and felony criminal damage to property after anti-Semitic statements and two swastikas were drawn throughout a dorm, according to The Daily Northwestern.

The disposition of those charges could not immediately be determined.

University spokeswomen did not return calls to their cell phones about Gajare's status as a student or past at Northwestern.

A Northwestern spokesman could not be reached late this evening.

Rodin residents crowded in the lobbies of Harnwell and Harrison College Houses until they were able to return to their rooms at about 4:30 a.m.

All four elevators - which were brand new - were out of service until about 9 a.m., when one elevator was repaired, Division of Public Safety spokeswoman Stef Cella wrote in an e-mail.

These elevators will remain down until Otis, an elevator maintenance company, can come for repairs, according to Rodin House Dean Ken Grcich.

Water damage also occurred on floors 20 through 22, Grcich said. It was unclear if the individual rooms sustained much damage, Penn Police Lt. Thomas Messner said early this morning.

Vice President of Public Safety Maureen Rush expressed relief that the sprinkler system put out the fire.

"This individual could have killed up to 800 people in the high rises," she said. "It's really quite sad that someone would do that to his own community."

Students who live in Rodin said they woke up to alarms and flooding.

Wharton senior Suhail Dar, who lives on the 22nd floor, said he woke up to a fire alarm at about 2:15 a.m., heard sprinklers going off and saw smoke.

College and Wharton senior Caleb Li, who also lives on the 22nd floor, said he heard screaming when the sprinklers went off.

When he exited his room, he said, he saw about five or six firemen with axes near the trash chute. He said he and his roommates smelled smoke and saw ashes near the trash chute and the lounge on his floor.

College junior Ian Graves said the common room in his 21st-floor apartment was flooded. The Rodin first-floor lobby was also flooded.

Rush added that as police officers were searching the 22nd floor for a suspect after the fire was extinguished, they noticed that the smoke detectors in several rooms had been covered over with plastic, which disables the detectors and violates a building ordinance.

Investigations are under way for further violations.

City News Editor Emily Schultheis, Online Editor Emily Babay and Campus News Editor Rachel Baye contributed to this article.

Comments (30)

What a shitshow. Eugene Janada and everyone else involved should find a new job that doesn't involve being responsible for others safety. This was so poorly managed. Fire alarms went off for the first hour or so while people were told to stay in the stairwells by that generic message that happens every time someone burns popcorn. Then the alarms were turned off and people returned to their rooms. At that time someone came on the loudspeaker and told everyone to go to the stairwells, then to evacuate the building, then changed their mind and told everyone to remain in the stairwell for an additional hour and a half. I'd hate to think how public safety would respond to a more sever emergency. We'd probably all be dead.

[QUOTE id="0def3698-c51c-4933-87e2-cc1057b95a01"]What a shitshow. Eugene Janada and everyone else involved should find a new job that doesn't involve being responsible for others safety. This was so poorly managed. Fire alarms went off for the first hour or so while people were told to stay in the stairwells by that generic message that happens every time someone burns popcorn. Then the alarms were turned off and people returned to their rooms. At that time someone came on the loudspeaker and told everyone to go to the stairwells, then to evacuate the building, then changed their mind and told everyone to remain in the stairwell for an additional hour and a half. I'd hate to think how public safety would respond to a more sever emergency. We'd probably all be dead.[/QUOTE] WTF must be correct because if it were handled properly Maureen Rush would be giving the statements and not the puppet pr person.

WTF, you've obviously never handled an emergency situation. if they had come on the loudspeaker and said that there was a real fire, people would have been injured in the mad rush down the stairs. the request to evacuate was probably due to concerns that the water could have compromised the structural integrity of the building. remember the fire was contained, no major damage or injuries, and if you wanted to leave the building at any point, you so could have. so stop complaining and be glad that A. they caught the guy who set the fire, and B. no one was hurt

It was not a massive fire, and by the burn marks on the floor, it appears like it was a small fire. The only thing is, it looks like it was lit right under a sprinkler right next to the elevator, which is the reason all of this mess happened. No one takes the standard fire alarm very seriously, which is pretty common knowledge among all of us students and probably the DPS people. I live on the 22nd floor, and I was lying in my bed for a half hour as the fire alarm went off and my progression of thoughts went something like..."What idiot burnt the popcorn?"..."Why is this going on so long?".."Hmm, this might be real"..and then after hearing students yelling excitedly in the hallways, peeking outside and smelling burning plastic and seeing water streaming on the floor, I finally realized "OK, this is real, time to get out of here." I may sound like an moron with a death wish, but I'd imagine I'm not the only one who thought this way. Some people never left. We stayed in the stairwells and peeked through the door window as firemen kept going into the trash room and we could hear as they kept hammering and hacking at something. (I guess it's interesting to note that people on other floors thought these could have been gunshots). Then after a while the alarm turned off and we went back to our rooms. There was no �?Attention, Attention, All Clear All Clear�? sound, but there was nothing else either, so we assumed it was good to go. After five minutes in our room we decided to see what happened so we peeked our heads out and it appeared the firemen were cleaning up. Then a police officer saw us peeking (probably looking like a bunch of idiots) and told us we shouldn�?t be on the floor and everyone on 21-23rd floors should be at Harrison. We never heard a loudspeaker announcement. So we went to Harrison where they gathered our information. And we hung out/slept in friends' rooms until around 5:30 am where we were let back to our rooms I think the response, though maybe more confusing than it should have been, was decent. The fire was put out, there was minimal damage, and no injuries. Besides that, for most of us, the only damage incurred was a few hours of sleep and maybe a few points off the tests which people had today. I understand the rationale over not telling everyone to get out immediately, because it was a small fire. But I'm wondering what the planned response to "the big one" would be? People are so jaded by frequent alarms, that the only way I envision actually getting everyone out as fast as possible in the case of a life-or-death fire would be an immediate loudspeaker "GET OUT NOW" or something related, in which people probably would be injured scrambling down the stairs. I'm guessing those injuries would be a we'll-cross-that-bridge-when-we-get-there situation. In all this, the people who should definitely get some extra praise are the facilities services people in Rodin, who spent the night cleaning the floors to the point that you can�?t really notice anything happened and who got an elevator up and running by morning classes. The people who should be condemned are the fools who set the trash bag on fire.

Rumor has it that two Southeast Asians were drunk and lit a trashbag on fire and set it down the trash chute or near there. What idiots.

Leave it to asians.

I just can't believe people could care so little about their peers to do something like this.

I agree with WTF, this emergency was very poorly managed. Floors 12-15 were told we didn't need to evacuate by the folks with the megaphones, but weren't told what to do. We were given panicked and inaccurate information by the ONLY people we could find-- two facilities guys-- who told us the entire building was flooding and to grab anything we needed from our rooms and run. We grabbed the stuff and realized nothing was actually flooding, so we stayed in the stairwell. After AN HOUR with no information and no one coming to check in, we called friends outside and got the message to stay in the stairwell. Later, we called Penn Police ourselves, who told us to go back to our rooms. We couldn't find a single person with ANY smidge of official information and not one person thought to come check the rooms and stairwells to see what was going on. There were plenty of other people waiting in stairwells that were just as confused. There is absolutely no reason not to make even a quick announcement saying "wait here," "leave," or "go back to your rooms." It isn't that difficult.

the smoke detectors in several rooms had been covered over with plastic, which disables the detectors The disabling of smoke detectors is the real threat and one of the easily predictable side effects of a dorm smoking ban. Even though someone (or even a number of someones) smoking in a room normally never set off smoke alarms, the presence of the ban makes smokers so paranoid about it that they cover up the detectors. Then when a real fire DOES break out it will have a chance to spread and kill people before alarms go off. Of course the University could protect lives by offering comfortable and exhaust vented smoking lounges in the dorms, but that wouldn't fulfill the mission of "Denormalizing" smoking sufficiently so the trade off on safety is made. Just another "unintended side effect" of smoking bans. Michael J. McFadden Author of "Dissecting Antismokers' Brains"

[QUOTE id="92fd9b82-31e9-41d3-9d1d-b2e9a688e7c0"]Leave it to asians.[/QUOTE] Tyrone, I don't like what happened last night any more than you did. In fact, I hope the idiot who lit the fire gets prosecuted and handed the severest penalty possible. With the stupid logic he used in lighting that butane can on fire, he could have easily put several hundred lives at stake. But for you to say, "Leave it to the asians" so offhandedly, as if the entire Asian race was responsible for one person's actions, is completely absurd. Maybe you think you're being funny, and maybe you think your comment is no big deal, but I'm going to tell you that it's not funny and it's not okay. It's rude, insensitive, and offensive. I don't appreciate you making "asians" the culprits of this crime, and I don't think it's appropriate for you to make race-oriented generalizations in regard to such a serious issue. In all reality, generalizations about race are never a good idea in the first place. Let me ask you, what do you really mean when you say "leave it to the asians"? Is there something intrinsically wrong with the Asian race? Have we wronged you in the past somehow? Honestly - do you have a problem with my race? Or is it just easy to poke fun at us? Whatever you mean - and I trust that you have not thought much about what I just said, if at all - I suggest that in the future, you think a little bit longer before you post your comments or speak your mind. You'll find that "leaving it to the Asians" will not always result in dorm fires and that "leaving it to any race" will not always result in anything you think it will. Open up your mind, close your mouth, and think a little bit please. Thanks. Feel free to contact me at hchow@sas. I'd be happy to talk to you.

I'm going to assume that Michael J. McFadden has a Google News alert for "smoke detector" and not that he trolls college papers on a daily basis, hoping to plug his book.

[QUOTE id="7511cbbf-eb7b-4cab-a07b-5d8a79ee4dc9"]"the smoke detectors in several rooms had been covered over with plastic, which disables the detectors" The disabling of smoke detectors is the real threat and one of the easily predictable side effects of a dorm smoking ban. Even though someone (or even a number of someones) smoking in a room normally never set off smoke alarms, the presence of the ban makes smokers so paranoid about it that they cover up the detectors. Then when a real fire DOES break out it will have a chance to spread and kill people before alarms go off. Of course the University could protect lives by offering comfortable and exhaust vented smoking lounges in the dorms, but that wouldn't fulfill the mission of "Denormalizing" smoking sufficiently so the trade off on safety is made. Just another "unintended side effect" of smoking bans. Michael J. McFadden Author of "Dissecting Antismokers' Brains"[/QUOTE] McFadden's insight is clouded by smoke. Smoke detectors are as likely to be disabled by people who burn their popcorn as they are by smokers. Moreover, his solution - vented smoking lounges - has a double cost to nonsmokers: the money to build and maintain them, and the space that would become unavailable to those who wish to avoid smoke. Furthermore, if we have people stupid enough to light a trash bag on fire living in Rodin, we have people stupid enough to smoke in bed, and that is an obvious fire hazard. I know that McFadden doesn't believe in the dangers of second hand smoke (despite the opinions of people who know a whole lot more about it than he does), but I know what happens to my eyes and airways when exposed to smoke, and that my reactions are common. Smokers have a right to smoke, but they do not have the right to subject me to it. They should assume the responsibility for containing it, just as any industry must assume the responsibility for air pollution they generate.

Chill out and eat a banana, dude.

look at him before he came to Penn: http://www.zoominfo.com/people/Gajare_Neil_917275674.aspx

No idea if this is the same Neil Gajare, but... http://www.chicagomaroon.com/2006/1/26/northwestern-student-charged-last-week-for-hate-crime

http://media.www.dailynorthwestern.com/media/storage/paper853/news/2006/01/20/City/Nu.Student.Charged.With.Committing.Sargent.Hall.Hate.Crime-1920545.shtml

COINCIDENCE?! RELATED? http://www.chicagomaroon.com/2006/1/26/northwestern-student-charged-last-week-for-hate-crime

I really hope the Vice Provost of University Life kicks this fool out. Anyone who is stupid/demented enough to try to burn down a college house containing 800 people does not deserve to be here.

Same guy or just a freaky coincidence? http://www.chicagomaroon.com/2006/1/26/northwestern-student-charged-last-week-for-hate-crime

If we found all these links about this guy's past - how did he get admitted to Penn?

Is this the same guy? http://www.chicagomaroon.com/2006/1/26/northwestern-student-charged-last-week-for-hate-crime

[QUOTE id="92fd9b82-31e9-41d3-9d1d-b2e9a688e7c0"]Leave it to asians.[/QUOTE] Neil Gajare was convicted of hate crimes in Northwestern. We don't need to follow his lead by continuing it here in Penn.

If you read the article, his age at the time of that hate crime would make him a 22 year old senior at Penn this year, which is in line with his age in the DP. For the sake of our admissions department, though, I sincerely hope this is just a coincidence. Why would he even be considered for admission as a transfer student? Clearly someone who drunkenly drew a swastika on the walls of a dorm room has no place at this--or any--university.

I agree with the commentators above: this guy needs to be kicked out of Penn as soon as possible. Why would we accept a transfer with a criminal record??? This is an issue that should be brought up with Admissions.

If he's a senior transfer student, he was only days away from graduation before he messed up big time. Nice going...