Dozens displaced by Boston apartment fire

BOSTON -- An overnight fire sent dozens of students into the street in Boston on Monday.

Right after moving in, dozens of students were forced out when a pre-dawn fire erupted in an apartment building early Monday.

The blaze broke out in the six-story apartment building at the corner of Hemenway Street and Westland Avenue near Northeastern University.

The building houses students from the Boston Conservatory, the Berklee School of Music and Northeastern -- and there are three businesses on the street level. Students said that they thought the fire alarm was no big deal until they started smelling the smoke.

“We got to the second floor we saw smoke and we were like, ‘Oh this is real,’” said Anthony Dicostanzo, a Boston Conservatory student.

The fire went to three alarms, bringing 75 firefighters to the scene.

“We were banging on doors at first and when people didn’t respond we actually forced entry on multiple doors to make sure that everybody got out,” Deputy Chief Robert Dunderdale said.

“Thank God we got out when we did because as soon as we got to the bottom like 30 seconds later there was a huge explosion from the top of the roof,” said Malori Martin.

By daybreak students were being let back inside to retrieve personal possessions, including musical instruments -- many worth thousands of dollars.

“Our stuff is okay, I don’t know about the rest of the complex, it’s really soaked in there,” said Brittany Karlson, a student at the Boston Conservatory.

Four dozen students are forced to move just as they were settling in for the school year. Damage was estimated at around $400,000. Police do not believe the fire to be suspicious, but they were still investigating the cause on Monday.

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