Fire in dorm at Harvard University’s Allston campus displaces several students
Several Harvard University students were displaced when a fire in a fourth floor apartment-style dormitory on the Ivy League school’s Allston campus broke out this evening, the evacuation of the seven-story building.
The room where the fire started because of an electrical short circuit in an outlet was damaged. Other rooms on lower floors were damaged when water used to extinguish the blaze leaked down to the first floor, Boston Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald said.
“The water was coming through all the ceilings and floors,’’ he said.
There were no injuries, MacDonald said. Damage was estimated at about $150,000. Fire investigators did not release further details about what caused the electrical outlet to short circuit and spark the one-alarm fire.
The school will provide on-campus housing for those displaced, according to MacDonald.
Fire fighters responded shortly before 7 p.m. to the alarm at Building No. 6 in the Soldiers Field Park dormitory complex located on the university’s business school campus, officials said.
This apartment complex, built in 1976, contains 478 apartments, according to the Harvard website.
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