CHRIS COUCH, OUR AGGIE HERO
The Greensboro Fire Department was on campus Nov. 2 responding to a 10:05 a.m. fire alarm in the basement of the Fort IRC. The fire was extinguished by IRC facilities manager Chris Couch. Director of environmental health & safety Andrew Small said, “a transformer malfunctioned in an exit sign in the basement.”

Marlowe Hinton and Sherman Brown of ITT detected the strange smells and reported it to Couch who noticed the smoke and sparks coming from the exit sign. Couch extinguished the small fire while Hinton pulled the fire alarm. No damage occurred except for the clean-up process to remove the fire extinguishing agent and replacing the damaged exit sign. Faculty, staff and students were evacuated for less than an hour while firemen, campus police and Small dealt with safety issues.

“People in the IRC responded quickly to the fire alarm and evacuated the building,” said Shena Crittendon who also works in the IRC. While assisting with the incident, A&T officer Shannon Black remarked, “Chris Couch is our hero for the day!”