A Boston University student’s lit cigarette caused a one-alarm fire at 40-42 Buswell St. last night when it ignited a window frame, according to Boston Fire Department District Chief Edmund Maiorana.
All residents of 40 Buswell St. were evacuated safely, and there were no reported injuries. Smoke and fire damage was limited to the shaft area between the two buildings.
The student was smoking in a fifth-floor apartment when the cigarette ignited the window frame. The frame then fell through the shaft in between the two buildings and ignited trash when it landed in the basement connecting the two buildings.
The fire was reported to the Office of Residence Life, which then called the Boston Fire Department just before 7 p.m.
College of Arts and Sciences sophomore Jared Swanson, a resident of 40 Buswell St., pulled the fire alarm. Swanson said he was in his fourth-floor apartment when he heard a “loud banging, crashing glass noise” and saw burning ashes and sparks falling outside his window between 40-42 Buswell St.
Swanson said he pulled the alarm after he heard 40 Buswell St. Residence Assistant Richard Nangle yelling to students to evacuate the building.
CAS freshman Andrew Madson, who lives on the fifth floor of 40 Buswell St., said he directed a firefighter to the stairway leading to the roof area that connects the two buildings. Madson said the fire “lit up” when he opened the door to the stairs, and “all he could see was light” when the firefighter began to ascend the stairway.
Maiorana said officials have not yet estimated the monetary damage, but he reported it will be “in the thousands.”
“Water got into the lining of the rear stairway, causing certain circuits to go out, which caused some lights to go out,” he said. “Fortunately for the occupants, the shaft is independent of the rest of the buildings.”
Smoke detectors were present in both buildings, but Maiorana said alarms only went off in 40 Buswell St.
Residents of the two buildings were allowed to return to their apartments last night around 7:30 after the fire was put out.