It’s a Fire! It’s a Fire! It’s a Fire! Yes, you heard right! Early this past week, a car caught on fire on N.C. A&T’s campus in the parking lot of Webb Hall. It brought a lot of attention, not only to students, but to faculty and staff as well. Although there were no injuries from the incident, many people were shocked.

According to Officer T.G. Stewart, the University Police Department (UPD) came to the site within two minutes. There was a great amount of dark brown smoke which became so thick, it limited the visibility of the car. Once the fire department arrived and opened the hood of the car, the flames increased.

After the fire was extinguished, it was later discovered that the car belonged to a faculty member. The cause of the fire is still unclear. Many students were informed about this incident through popular social media site, Snapchat, and questioned why an Aggie Alert was not sent out to notify the campus.

This incident has students asking: is Snapchat more reliable than Aggie Alert? After speaking with Officer T.G. Stewart, it was explained that an Aggie Alert was not initiated to spread the news because it simply wasn’t important enough to report.

Typically, Aggie Alerts are for incidents that impact students in a harmful way or if it is something that affects the campus’ safety concern. Anything as simple as bad weather or as extreme as a gun on campus can be reported through Aggie Alerts. However, the news reported is not at the students’ discretion. Either way, I still believe social media is more effective than Aggie Alert because news travels fast on campus especially since our students are always on social media.

Bria Bonner – Photographer