A fire ripped through a Vestal apartment building Thursday night, destroying it and displacing some 140 people, including 65 BU students. Around 30 were left homeless, according to a BU spokesman.
Building G of the Riviera Ridge apartment complex, 134 Jensen Road, was gutted by the blaze, which started when combustibles left too close to an electric space heater — likely clothing — caught fire. The apartment, according to Vestal fire officials, was occupied by three women in their 20s who weren’t home at the time.
The Vestal Fire Department was one of nine that responded to the scene, with a total of around 120 firefighters and others in reserve. Despite the response, it took around 19 hours for the fire to be extinguished completely.
Nobody was injured in the fire, and fire officials chalk that up to the fact that the building’s safety features. including smoke detectors, emergency lights and exit signs, were all fully functional. Last year, the same building received multiple citations for violating fire code, but reports have said that the property manager, Steve Reed, soon made the needed repairs.
Residents of two adjacent buildings, which suffered smoke or water damage, or both, were not allowed to return until late Saturday. Those left homeless in Building G, meanwhile, were escorted to their apartments earlier in the day on a limited basis to try and reclaim their belongings. Some had better luck than others, though, as a number of the apartments had to be demolished to put out the fire.
“I went back to see if I could salvage anything, but they told me my floor, my apartment, didn’t exist any more,” said Aileen Cheng, a BU senior who lived on the top floor of building G. “The floor and everything had collapsed. They were like, ‘Don’t even bother.’”
Cheng, an accounting major, was at the gym with a friend from another building when the fire began, and only had her car keys and cell phone when she returned home at around 9:30 p.m. to find the massive emergency response. She was soon told by rescuers that her beloved dog, Noodles, had been rescued. In fact, pets like Noodles were the only residents of Building G that needed rescuing — cats, dogs and a turtle among them.
Again, though, just about all of Cheng’s belongings were destroyed — and to top it all off, she does not have renter’s insurance.
“My wallet and everything was in the apartment,” she said. “I might be out of luck on everything.”
BU and the local community have begun to step in to help students displaced by the fire. It’s offering them counseling, $500 emergency loans and space in campus dorms, or helping them find new apartments off campus. Professors have been asked to be accommodating over the next few weeks, and the campus bookstore is selling new textbooks and supplies on a delayed payment plan. And Cingular Wireless set up free emergency calling stations at some of its stores.
Cheng appreciates the University’s attempts to help, but isn’t sure they’ll do much to help her.
“I went to the meeting, I know they’re trying to help,” she said. “But there’s no point in settling in when I’m going to graduate in three months.”
Cheng will likely spend the time until commencement staying with friends, trying to piece her life back together one possession at a time.
“Thinking about it, everything was my favorite thing,” she said. “I lost my laptop which had a lot of things on it. Lots of pictures, lots of memories.
“Little things do matter, not having an ID and stuff, that sucks,” she said. “But I’m alive and that’s all that matters. No one really even needed to get saved except for my dog.”
Cheng wanted to make clear that despite her misfortune, she and her friends didn’t see the girls responsible for the fire in any bad light.
“I know that this isn’t their fault and I don’t want them to take it that way,” she said. “I know that the people who live in the building, we’re not at all mad at them. They lost their stuff just like I lost my stuff.”