To the editors:

In The Harvard Crimson for July 3, 2003 (News, “Lewis Enacts Fireplace Ban, Ignites Controversy”), there is a report that fires in fireplaces in Harvard student rooms will no longer be permitted. When I was an undergraduate, we used the fireplaces, and some years we used them frequently. They were often used to provide a “mood” for Friday and Saturday night parties. Over the years since then, I have occasionally shuddered to think of the risks that actually occurred. The fires were usually large and blazing. The fires were often stoked by students who had been drinking, and the fires were sometimes left to go out by themselves while the students took their dates home.

It is rare today for a private apartment to have a working fireplace; the risk for the other tenants is too great. Most graduates of Harvard go on to live without fireplaces in comfortable apartments, until one day they move into houses with fireplaces. Reading and thinking can continue without a fireplace, and sitting in front of a television is not the only alternative to sitting in front of a fire.

Edward Tabor ’69

Bethesda, Md.

July 8, 2003