College Students Die In Fire
R News
Two college students died and one was seriously hurt after a two-alarm house fire in Rochester early Friday morning.
Firefighters were called to Upton Park at 2:39 a.m. for the report of a porch fire. When firefighters arrived on scene there were heavy smoke and flames coming from the house.
One of the victims was found on the first floor and the other was found on the second floor. A third person was pulled out of a second- story window and rushed to Strong Hospital. Rochester’s Deputy Fire Chief says the victim is in a room at the hospital with burns to his trachea and is in stable condition.
Neighbors say the three were among six RIT students who lived in the home. They tell us the residents do not appear to be from this area.
Democrat & Chronicle
“The first arriving units were here within five minutes,” said Curran, who was in charge of the fire scene. “On arrival, three people were outside the building already. A smoke detector had alerted them.”
Craig DelGiorno, 19, lives next door and was awaken. “People were screaming, it was chaos,” he said. “People were coming out of the building, just collapsing. Guys were jumping off the roof. In a matter of minutes, the whole house was up.”
DelGiorno said he and his landlord started breaking windows to help get the students out but the fire prevented them from getting too far.
DelGiorno said he hangs out with the students who live in the house. “They were fun-loving guys. Never bothered anyone.”
Two of the people escaped through the front of the house, one from the back.
“Simultaneous to our arrival, our first unit’s arrival, two people exited the second floor through a window, then jumped off the porch roof, to escape the fire,” Rochester Fire Chief John Caufield said. “The third tenant escaped through the back stairway.”
Curran said the first unit on scene found heavy fire and smoke.
“They pushed in, they had a lot of fire around them,” Curran said of the firefighters. “We called a second alarm. It took a couple of ladders to get the one person out of the second floor. The conditions were tough, but that is what we are here for.”
Firefighters had the blaze under control in about 20 minutes. According to firefighters on the scene, it appears that the fire started in a first-floor bedroom.
“Three got out with the smoke alarm We do not know what happened with the other three yet,” Curran said of the victims. “This is too early in the timeframe to be speculating what happened.”
Caufield said that the working smoke alarm helped saved lives.
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