An early morning fire broke out in South Campus on Saturday, leaving several students in need of temporary homes until the damage can be repaired, police offcials said.
Boston University Police Department Sgt. Jeffrey Burke said the fire, which broke out in a third floor apartment at 6 Buswell St, ‘was accidentally started by improper disposal of smoking material inside the building.’
The fire alarm sounded in the building at about 3:30 a.m. A resident also telephoned BUPD, Burke said.
Between Boston Fire Department and Brookline Fire Department, nine fire trucks responded to the incident, Burke said. Two fire trucks flanked the entrance of 6 Buswell St., and one fire truck had its ladder extended to the roof of the residence. Police cruisers lined the streets around the area.
BFD spokesmen were unavailable for comment at press time.’
Burke said some residents were relocated because of fire, smoke and water damage, but he did not say where they were staying or for how long.
Some residents temporarily took shelter at 518 Park Drive after evacuating the building, resident Paras Mahadevia said.
‘The fire alarm went off, my roommate came into my room, woke me up, put a coat on, went outside,’ he said. ‘After a couple minutes, there were three fire trucks and police. The RAs took us down the street to 518 [Park Drive], and we stayed there for an hour and a half or so, maybe an hour, not even that long.
Mahadevia, a School of Management senior, said he heard from other residents that the fire originated in apartment 14, but this has not been confirmed. The five residents of the apartment were either unavailable for comment or refused to comment.
The fire alarm notification posted on the door of 6 Buswell St. Saturday morning stated that at 3:30 a.m. Feb. 21, the fire alarm was activated by an ‘accidental fire on 3rd floor.’
The smell of smoke was detectable throughout the building and in the entrance, Mahadevia, said.
‘Our apartment had smoke when we got back,’ Mahadevia said. ‘We just had to open the windows, and it kinda aired out pretty quick.’
‘By the next day, everything was cleaned up actually,’ he said. ‘They did maintenance work in the morning, and it was all done.’
Staff writer Ellie Choi contributed to the reporting of this article.
This is an account occasionally used by the Daily Free Press editors to post archived posts from previous iterations of the site or otherwise for special circumstance publications. See authorship info on the byline at the top of the page.
