An air conditioning unit caught fire at 575 Commonwealth Avenue Saturday morning, causing an emergency evacuation of residents from the building.
At approximately 6:15 a.m. Saturday, a fire alarm was pulled on the first floor of HoJo. Six Boston Fire Department firetrucks arrived at the scene shortly after residents were alerted to evacuate the premises.
Boston University Spokesperson Colin Riley said there was smoke on the first floor that was cleared by BFD. The BU Police Department also arrived at the scene.
“By the time police and fire got there, there was no fire. It was just the smoke,” Riley said.
No students were harmed or relocated as a result of the event. Riley said the AC unit involved in the fire and other surrounding units are scheduled to be replaced in the summer.
Freshman HoJo resident Sydney Earlewine said she and her roommate waited in the Questrom School of Business building due to the “really cold” weather. Residents waited for about 30 minutes before being cleared to reenter their rooms.
Freshman HoJo resident Laycee Yang said she and her roommate were “confused” after being startled awake by the emergency evacuation announcement.
“The [evacuation] message only played once and then when it was going to play the second time, it cut off,” Yang said. “We weren’t sure if it went off on accident because you would think that it would repeat a couple of times.”
While Yang did not see or smell smoke as she left the building, she said she saw firefighters bringing “really big, industrial” fans into HoJo shortly before residents were allowed to reenter.
Yang said she was not concerned about the situation because the evacuation announcement shut off quickly, and the firefighters appeared calm.
“The vibe was pretty non-emergency,” Yang said. “There wasn’t a lot of chaos going on, which I think made me not get that scared.”
Yang’s day was unaffected by the evacuation, but Earlewine said the incident interfered with her Saturday plans.
“I was really annoyed just because I was going through sorority recruitment this week,” Earlewine said.
Earlewine said she did not see or smell anything out of the ordinary during the evacuation.
“It was wasting my time. It was wasting everyone’s time in the building,” Earlewine said. “All the firefighters and policemen probably could have been doing something more productive.”
