By
The Associated Press
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. (AP) - Shawn Simons was moving too fast to feel any pain, crawling down a hallway through smoke and flames that peeled layers of skin off his face and hands. He wouldn't feel it until he woke up from a coma in the hospital two weeks later.
A year after the fire at a Seton Hall University dormitory that killed three of Simons' fellow students, prosecutors have yet to arrest anyone in a case they have investigated as arson from the start.
"I don't see how this person lives with himself, knowing that they caused so much damage," said Simons, 19, glancing down at his scarred, skin-grafted hands. "I'm more angry at the fact that this person won't be man enough to admit it."
The blaze in a third-floor lounge of Boland Hall sent more than 600 students fleeing into the freezing cold before dawn last Jan. 19; 58 were treated for everything from frostbite to burns.
The tragedy stirred debate about campus safety across the nation and led to a state law requiring fire sprinklers in all college dorm rooms.
After the blaze, Seton Hall students said they used to sleep through fire alarms because so many of them were pranks, and they complained that the university had not trained them well enough to escape.
Now, university officials say there are no more prank fire alarms, and resident advisers say students who once slept through fire alarms never miss a fire drill. There are also stricter fire safety policies, and smoke alarms that connect to South Orange's fire department have been installed in each dorm room.
Still, 15 students have said the fire contributed to their decision to leave school, said Susan Diamond, a spokeswoman at the 10,000-student Roman Catholic university.
