A chemistry graduate student caused a fire in the basement of the Office and Laboratory Building on Friday, March 20.

According to Jerry Stewart, assistant director for the Department of Public Safety, Xiandan Lu, 149H University Village, wanted to destroy a number of confidential documents.

She took the documents to a basement hallway, where she set fire to them on the tile floor. Custodian Richard J. Patterson, Sr., arrived while the fire was burning.

Patterson said he walked up at about 11:25 a.m. and saw “a grad student standing over papers that were burning.”

He told her he would put it out, but he said she told him it was under control.

Patterson picked up a bottle of glass cleaner and poured it over the fire, extinguishing it. He said he used glass cleaner because water would have “scattered the fire.”

When the office staff on the first floor began smelling smoke, Patterson suggested they report the incident to DPS.

Two floor tiles were discolored and had to be stripped and refinished.

According to the DPS report, damage to the floor tiles was estimated at $100.

Patterson said Lu will have to pay for the damage, which was cleaned up that afternoon.

The incident was reported to Lu’s major professor, Patterson said.

He also said DPS told him a copy of the police report will go to the professor and the chemistry department head.

The Ames Fire Department was not called in because no fire alarms were set off.

Stewart said no charges have been filed, because in order to file charges, there must be proof of intent to damage. Since the papers belonged to Lu, intent could not be shown.