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Harris residence hall at the University of Vermont, where police say fires were set early Sunday morning. UVM photo



Sawyer Loftus is a news reporter with the Vermont Cynic, where a version of this article was originally published.



BURLINGTON — One day after University of Vermont Police announced they had cited five first-year students into court for arson, the Chittenden County State’s Attorney’s Office informed the police it was declining to prosecute the case.



Interim Police Chief Tim Bilodeau said the county prosecutor’s office handed the case back to UVM Monday to deal with internally.



Police had announced Sunday they had arrested Abigail Coughlin, Anna Siegel, Olivia Cull, Mackenzie Callanan and Jonathan Kraus and charged them with second-degree arson.



Tim Bilodeau, interim UVM police chief. UVM photo

That charge carries a penalty of up to five years in prison and a $1,000 fine, according to Vermont law.

UVM Police believe the five students were responsible for setting fire to pieces of paper stuck to other students’ doors inside of Harris residence hall early Sunday morning.



The first fire alarm was activated at 1:37 a.m., and by the time Burlington firefighters arrived, the fires were already out.



“We charged for arson, because obviously setting doors on fire inside a residence hall is particularly dangerous,” Bilodeau said. “I think our community had that sort of expectation that police would respond in a way that takes that very seriously.”



Bilodeau said it’s not unusual for the state’s attorney’s office to decide not pursue charges against college students, but the severity of Sunday’s incident called for a serious response.



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“I think with serious crimes, it’s important to let the state’s attorney see those cases and make that determination,” he said. “I think there can be factors that we’re not aware of, but that’s standard in policing.”



Ruby Bryan, a first-year student who lives on the second floor of Harris, said the group of students lit a piece of paper on her door on fire.



Paper decorations and a notice of room inspections show the lingering marks of fire on a room door in UVM’s Harris Hall. Photo by Maryann Makosiej/Vermont Cynic

Bryan said she had just gotten into bed when the fire alarm went off. She initially didn’t think much of it.

“I was like, ‘Oh, it’s just Harris being terrible on a Saturday,’” Bryan said. “I didn’t think it was an actual fire.”



But as she stepped outside her dorm, her nose was filled with the smell of something burning, Bryan said.



“It smelled so toxic burnt, like burnt chemicals, not toast or anything,” she said.



After the building was deemed safe by first responders, Bryan said she noticed the damage to her door.



Byran and her roommate had decorated the door with stickers of Peppa Pig, a children’s cartoon show character. Now in some places, Peppa’s face has been smoldered away, she said.

“It’s not very family friendly anymore,” Bryan said.



At first, Bryan thought the incident was just annoying, but once police started asking questions, her thinking shifted, she said.

“What if the door actually caught on fire?” Bryan said. “This is Harris. We’d have to jump down two floors. There’s no way out if there’s actually a fire. That’s so (messed) up. Something could have actually happened.”



The fires did not appear to be targeted, Bilodeau said in his Sunday email.



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