Leverett House residents who had been flagged for fire safety violations lost their microwaves, coffeemakers, candles and grills during rapid and unannounced room inspections Friday.

Though the House superintendents annually check rooms to confiscate appliances that violate the Cambridge fire code, Leverett students said that unlike in past years, they did not learn of a series of reinspections until their cooking equipment was removed from their rooms.

Kelly Shue ’06, who was taking a nap when Leverett Superintendent Paul Hegarty and a member of the House staff came into her room and woke her up, said she would have hidden her microwave if she had known in advance that her room would be searched.

“The main issue is that we were told the last inspection would be in late January,” Shue said. “In the past, people had been really stupid, leaving their microwaves out on the day of inspection. In this case, I think people got mad because no one had any warning.”

Hegarty said he put notes on students’ desks over winter break, informing them that they had violated the code and that he would conduct a second round of room inspections to ensure that the rooms complied with the safety standards. The second round was scheduled to take place in the last week of January.

“Everyone with a flag got a notice by e-mail alerting them to a second inspection,” Hegarty said. “If the illegal appliances are still there, we’re supposed to take them.”

But Hegarty said the inspections did not take place until Feb. 6 because he was sick on the day they were scheduled.

When he returned to work last week, Hegarty said he confiscated a total of eight microwaves, four coffeemakers, several candles and a George Foreman grill.

Hegarty said last year he confiscated six microwaves and several coffeemakers, but no grills, and the year before—when the fire policy was not stringently enforced—he did not confiscate any appliances.

“This is a system-wide inspection and it’s also not new in that we have had students alerted in the past that reinspections would be done,” said Associate Dean of the College Thomas A. Dingman ’67.

Shue, who said she was surprised by the sudden and strict enforcement of the fire safety code, sent an e-mail over the Leverett open-list Friday warning students that the superintendent was making a round of inspections and confiscating appliances from individual rooms.

Though Toussaint G. Losier ’04 read the e-mail Shue had sent out, he said he was still too late to save the microwave he shares with his “U”—or U-shaped hallway serving to connect the individual rooms within a single suite in the Leverett Towers.

The microwave joined a collection of other cooking appliances, candles and coffeemakers on a trolley the superintendent was using to make his rounds.

Hegarty said that the majority of microwaves came from Leverett Towers, not from Old Leverett, and that he has stored them in a locked room underneath his office in the Leverett basement until a charity comes to collect them.

Losier, who lives on the ninth floor, said he felt frustrated that he had been targeted for the reinspections and vowed to take greater precautions toward protecting his possessions by locking his U in the future.