Friday, November 27th 2009

By Lily Panamsky

The Brandon Hall arsonist, Emerson Pardoe, has pleaded guilty to the charge of Arson Endangering Human Life, in connection with the Oct. 18, 2008 fire at Brandon Hall residence. He will be tried as an adult.

He admitted to being under the influence of drugs and alcohol at the time of the crime. A second count against him–Arson Endangering Property– has been dropped.

According to this morning’s court readings, on Oct. 18, 2008, at approximately 2:45 AM, Pardoe and two other McMaster students had just left an acquaintance’s residence room and were walking down the hallway of Brandon Hall. Pardoe set fire to a poster with a lighter. His friends a reprimanded him, extinguished the fire, and parted ways. The smoke alarms did not go off at that time.

At 3:42 AM, Pardoe was returning, by himself, to his residence room on the third floor. He rode the middle elevator to the third floor, and, at 3:43 AM, set fire to a corner of a stack of Silhouette papers using a match and then retired to his room.

At 3:45 AM, a student on the 10th floor called the elevator up and first noticed the fire. When the elevator reached the 10th floor, the smoke alarm went off, automatically sending all the elevators down to the first floor. The middle elevator was called back up to the second floor, where it remained opened and spread through the halls.

All students evacuated the building. Four were rushed to the hospital. They were treated for smoke inhalation; one student remained in the hospital for four days. All four students have since made full recoveries.

Brandon Hall was closed down for the rest of the fall semester, and reopened on Jan. 4, 2009. The total estimated damage was $3 million, not including additional costs to relocate the students to several hotels across Hamilton. The second floor sustained fire and smoke damage, while the rest of the building experienced smoke damage.

Pardoe was arrested on Nov. 3, 2008. He has since admitted that his intentions were not to harm anyone.

This was Pardoe’s third attempt at a trial; now that he has pleaded guilty, a sentence report has to be written about him. It will be presented on Jan. 26, 2010.

Tags: arsonist, Brandon Hall Fire, Emerson, Emerson Pardoe, fire, Guilty Pardoe, McMaster, mcmaster fire, McMaster Residence Fire, Pardoe, Pardoe Trial, Residence Fire