Cause of death: Darwinism

-- Iron Bowl

Friday, March 16, 2007

One dead, firefighters hurt after Brookline fire near BU

(George Rizer/Globe Staff)

Two young people hugged outside a fatal fire in Brookline this morning in an off-campus apartment house near Boston University.

By John R. Ellement, George Rizer, and Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff

A party near Boston University took a deadly turn early this morning when a four-alarm blaze tore through an off-campus apartment, killing a young man and injuring two firefighters.

"There was some partying going on," said Brookline Fire Chief John Green this morning standing outside the charred, yellow-brick row house. "He was part of the party."

The victim, whose name was not released, was found inside a closet on the third floor.

"It appears he got confused," Green said. "He went into the closet to get out and was likely overcome by smoke."

Colin Riley, a school spokesman, said that he was told by Brookline police that the victim was college-age male who was not a BU student. Brookline police did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment.

This week is spring break at BU so most students are out of town, Riley said. The blaze displaced roughly a dozen students, and the school is working to find temporary housing for those affected.

Green said the victim came to the party and was unfamiliar with the building and was unfamiliar with the room in which he died.

At about 1 a.m., people at the party lit a charcoal barbecue in an old-fashioned grill on a rear wooden porch on the third floor, Green said. The blaze was reported at about 6 a.m. in the three-story building on St. Marys Street, just over the Boston city near Commonwealth Avenue and BU's campus.

The building, which was home to predominately students, is two blocks from the site of a blaze Feb. 25 that left two BU juniors dead.

Several officials from BU were on the scene this morning. Shortly after the fire, an MBTA bus took at least 20 residents away from the scene.

This morning, firefighters from Boston and Newton assisted the Brookline Fire Department battling the flames. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Two firefighters suffered non-life-threatening injuries when a Brookline firefighter fell through a floor and a Boston firefighter hurt his back.

When Brookline firefighters arrived, they found heavy smoke and flames on the third floor. It appears that the fire may have started there on the top level, near the back of the building on the wooden porch where the students lit the barbecue. It is against town code to have a grill anywhere but on the ground floor of a residence, Green said.

The porch was also used as a smoking room and had an overstuffed chair and couch.

Firefighters used ladders to rescue residents from the flames, escorting them from the upper floors to the ground. They did not find the victim in the closet the first time they checked the third floor, which was filled with thick smoke, Green said. When they searched the third floor a second time, the young man's body was discovered in the closet, Green said.

In February, a candle ignited a blaze that ripped through an off-campus housing complex at 21 Aberdeen Street and killed two BU juniors -- Rhiannon McCuish, 21, of Mashpee, and Stephen Adelipour 21, of Great Neck, N.Y. A third student, Steven Boursiquot, 22, a senior from Dix Hills, N.Y., suffered burns on 20 percent of his body.