Allston fire forces out BU students
A fire ripped through a house divided into two apartments and occupied by several Boston University students at about 3 a.m. Sunday, according to a Boston Police Department report.
Four ladders, two fire trucks, two ambulances and other rescue crews responded to the blaze at 66 Quint Ave. in Allston, where an officer on the scene reportedly saw smoke “billowing from the attic and upstairs windows.”
District Fire Chief Patrick Ellard told police the cause of the fire was unknown at the time, although an arson squad would investigate. He estimated damage to the house at about $75,000.
No injuries were reported and no one required medical attention.
-Liz Goldberg
Woman survives pet python attack
A Roxbury woman said she is feeling “just fine” after her seven-foot pet Burmese Python Saturday tried to eat her arm, which the snake mistook for a rat.
Boston Police yanked the python, named Moma, off 43-year-old Wanda Nunez, who suffered minor injuries, including broken skin. Nunez was taken to Boston Medical Center.
“I had him around my neck and he had seen the rat on the table that I had so I could feed him,” Nunez said. “When I reached my hand out to put him on my shoulder, he grabbed my hand.”
Nunez said the snake bit into her arm and wrapped itself around her left leg.
But she said she has no plans to get rid of Moma – her pet for three years.
“It’s my fault, and I’m keeping him,” she said.
-Aaron Kellogg
MET opens new security program
The future of security technology will hit Boston University’s campus next fall as the Metropolitan College begins construction on an Information Security Lab, part of a recent collaboration with private security company Communication Intelligence Corporation.
The new laboratory will offer MET Computer Science students hands-on training, research opportunities and practical demonstrations of theories that are covered in their security courses.
BU hopes to equip students with a lab environment that utilizes cutting-edge security technologies to guarantee them the best education with respect to the increasing computer security issues that faces society today, Computer Science Department Chairman Tanya Zlateva said.
“CIC was a natural choice for us to use in our programs,” she said.
Through the new collaboration, officials are hoping to enhance and promote biometric products that are already used in labs, such as “hand geometry,” which utilizes the distinctive characteristics of the hand to verify people’s identities.
“Partnering with CIC, will offer to our students and faculty a unique opportunity to study, research and teach the fundamentals of the technologies involved in the signature verification and authentication field,” said Lubomir Todorov-Citkusev, a MET professor who is leading the design efforts for equipping the biometrics lab.
-Ahmed Shihab-Eldin