"After the Fire" movie poster with text "After the Fire: A true story of heroes and cowards."
What Would You Do if Your Dorm Caught Fire?
Survivors to show documentary, answer questions about their frightening experience

Two survivors of a deadly fire in a freshman residence hall at Seton Hall University will present a documentary of their horrifying experience and answer questions in two presentations on Tuesday, Sept. 5 at Trinity University.

The main presentation will begin at 7 p.m. in Laurie Auditorium and is open to the public. Students from all San Antonio colleges and universities are encouraged to attend. A lunchtime session will be held at noon for staff and faculty in the Fiesta Room on the Trinity campus. Those viewing the midday screening are invited to bring a brown bag lunch.

Ivan Pendergast, Trinity’s crisis management team coordinator, said the video, “After the Fire,” will be followed by an audience question-and-answer session with the two survivors, Alvaro Llanos and Shawn Simons. The documentary was inspired by a Pulitzer Prize-winning story and a New York Times bestseller.

“One of them was burned over 56 percent of his body, and he talks about multiple skin grafts and other physical discomfort,” Pendergast says. Three students were killed in the fire, which was set as a prank while most students were asleep. The incident occurred in January 2000 at the New Jersey university where Llanos and Simons were 18-year-old roommates.

The free Trinity presentations are sponsored by the University’s offices of Environmental Health and Safety, Risk Management and Insurance, and Emergency Management along with the Trinity University Police Department.

For 150 years, Trinity University has transformed challenge into boundless opportunity. Join the force in motion at www.trinity.edu.

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