A fire set on the third floor of Snyder Hall Wednesday morning marked the dorm's fourth fire since last November that Penn State Police Services is investigating.

The fire was ignited in the trashcan of a janitor's closet, causing no significant damage to the building, Police Supervisor Dwight Smith said. A resident assistant and police put it out.

"We had three fires in November that were also suspicious," Smith said. "We started adding additional patrols, both plain-clothed and uniformed, and the fires stopped."

He said the fire has police on increased alert.

Smith said Wednesday's fire, which triggered alarms at 2:55 a.m., was similar to the other fires, which were also set in trash containers and janitor's closets in the same time frame. He would not rule out that the person setting the fires might be a resident.

While none of the fires caused significant physical damage to the dorm, damage has been done to residents' sense of safety and security.

"We're real concerned for our safety," said Matt Magyar (freshman-aerospace engineering). "It's not a joke. It's a serious thing, setting fire to a building. It could injure a lot of people. It's a bad situation."

Resident Stephanie DeMarco (freshman-crime, law and justice), who lives on the fourth floor, said she was shocked that someone would set a fire and put so many lives in danger.

Both residents think more needs to be done to catch the arsonist and prevent more fires in Snyder Hall.

"It bothers me that not a lot of action has been taken," DeMarco said. "It seems a lot of people are going to be hurt or die before something is done."

She added that she has not seen preventive measures, such as installing cameras.

Magyar felt similarly.

"They need to crack down on whoever is setting these fires," he said. "They need to quit saying they have a good idea who is setting these fires and show some results."

Smith would not comment on the surveillance techniques used by his department, but said methods for both preventing fires and catching the arsonist are in place.

Last semester, Residence Life allowed access to the janitor closets, where trash containers are kept, only while staff were on duty.

Alison Cummings, assistant director for Residence Life, said those restrictions were loosened during finals week of last semester and at the beginning of this semester, but are now reinstated.

Anyone with information on these fires is urged to call Centre County Crime Stoppers at (877) 992-7463, or anonymously log onto the Penn State Police Web site at www.psu.edu/dept/police.