A fire early Friday morning damaged the second floor of an off-campus house inhabited by Tufts students and a family of four, requiring a fire department rescue and forcing residents to seek alternative housing.
The fire began around 7 a.m. on Friday morning at 7 University Ave. from an undetermined source on the second floor of the three-story house, according to senior Eric Aiken, a third-floor resident.
"The fire alarm woke my roommate and I up around 7 a.m.," Aiken said. "When we looked outside, we could see smoke billowing out of the windows on the second floor. That's when we decided we should leave. By the time we got out, we could hear fire trucks coming," he said.
Seniors Jim Dillon, Matthew Burch and Aiken, all third-floor residents, exited the building via the fire escape. One second-floor resident also fled through a fire escape, but two other people were unable to get out of the building. They had to lean outside of their second-floor window until the Medford Fire Department could rescue them using a ladder, according to Aiken.
"The fire department was great. They told us they were able to keep the fire contained to the second-floor kitchen. The kitchen was completely torched, but the second-floor bedrooms only had smoke damage," Burch said.
The fire took around 30 minutes to contain. Most fire damage was confined to the second floor, but much of the house suffered from smoke damage, according to Aiken.
Burch said that the smoke ruined sheets, mattresses and food, but that most of their belongings were undamaged.
"When we first escaped, we all grabbed our laptops. That's the only thing of value we could think of," Burch said.
Residents were then taken to the Tufts University Police Department station, where they were questioned by Medford fire officials about potential causes of the fire and the sequence of events after the fire started, according to Burch.
"We had a limited idea of how it started, and we couldn't give them very much evidence. As far as figuring out how it started, all of that information came from people on second floor, so we don't really know what happened," Burch said.
The fire department is still conducting an investigation of the possible causes of the fire, according to Burch.
The residents were able to return to the house briefly to collect their belongings, but the house is currently inaccessible to the residents, Burch said.
When the residents will be able to return and how much damage the fire inflicted remains unclear at this point, according to Burch.
Burch said that the university has offered affected students unlimited meal plans until Wednesday, as well emergency on-campus housing. Both Burch and Aiken opted to stay with friends instead. The three hope to find alternative off-campus housing beginning next semester, Burch said.
"I don't think any of us were traumatized, but it was definitely an interesting way to wake up on Friday morning — everyone got out safe, and there weren't any problems afterward," Aiken said.