Merrimac Fire Destroys Students' Home

Merrimac Fire Destroys Students' Home

JENNIFER HARB

Senior Life Editor

Massive amounts of smoke rose into the sky, and the loud sound of sirens drew a large crowd of concerned students and community members to 37 Merrimac St. on Friday afternoon.

The Buffalo Fire Department was called to the scene to put out a blaze that was rapidly spreading throughout the house. Since the home had a wooden frame, the fire reportedly had a "good hold" of the first and second floors. The cause of the fire is under investigation and lab work is currently being conducted.

After the fire had been put out, the eight occupants were escorted into the home to gather their belongings, according to Buffalo Fire Division Chief Donald McFeely. It was estimated that there was $30,000 worth of content damage and $65,000 in building damage. The adjacent houses, 33 Merrimac and 39 Merrimac, reported $10,000 and $25,000 worth of exposure damage, respectively.

Girinath Ramachandran, a 2nd year electrical engineering graduate student and one of the occupants of the house, was not home when the fire began. However, Ramachandran recounted the experiences of his roommates who were home at the time.

"There was a small sound from [a] room and [my roommates] couldn't find what caused it because there was a lot of smoke," Ramachandran said. "In a matter of 35 minutes, everything was on fire. They weren't sure of the reasons."

Although the university offered to provide a hotel room for the students, the occupants decided to stay with friends in University Heights instead.

According to Ramachandran, the landlord may be able to arrange another house in which the students can live for the remaining six months. However, Ramachandran does not know when such arrangements will be discussed or made.

"We have been trying to reach him for two days. He may be busy with other housing issues, but we'll have to wait for a couple of days to get an answer from him," Ramachandran said. "He didn't talk about it further."

Unfortunately, a majority of the occupants' possessions have been destroyed. For the international students living in the home, this fire was especially devastating as many of their legal documents necessary for immigration were either partially or completely ruined. The International Student and Scholar Services (ISSS) is currently assisting the students with this issue and has provided them with the necessary recourse to obtain new paperwork.

Despite the circumstance, Ramachandran remains optimistic that the situation will be resolved. His main concern is returning to his schoolwork and projects, which may be difficult because much of the work was lost in the fire.

"We didn't really figure out what we lost until now… our hard drives had lots of materials for projects this semester," Ramachandran said. "Once we started to go through this, we needed to meet with our professors to discuss [what to do]."

The university gave each of the students $50 in Campus Cash, and the American Red Cross, which was at the scene of the fire, is helping the students understand how to go about replacing licenses and other legal documents. It also supplied $375 for each student to replace lost items and is willing to encumber the first month's rent in the event that the students secure new housing soon.

Although these students had been living in the house for approximately a year and a half, many other international students rent apartments or houses from their homes overseas.

"I think the students, being literally halfway around the world, trying to secure an apartment via e-mail can easily put them into a bad situation," said Chris Bragdon, an international student advisor in the department of international education services. "Once they're here, they suddenly have to try to find a place to live or settle on a place. They don't know the area and they might be pressured by landlords."

The Off Campus Housing department, located at 365 Harriman Hall, helps students find apartments. Dan Ryan, the director of Off Campus Student Relations, helps students deal with landlords as well as issues within students' homes. This may mean finding a housing inspector or giving the residents advice by helping them understand their rights as tenants.

"We'll connect them to the City of Buffalo building inspector, who can, at the students' invitation, come in and take a look and tell them where there might be possible risks," Ryan said. "Malfunctioning furnaces, plumbing or electrical, clogged drier vents, non-functioning smoke detectors… sometimes the building inspector can help in getting things fixed with the landlord much more quickly than the student alone can."

In order to raise funds for the students, the Graduate Indian Student Association will have a table in the Student Union for donations this Thursday and Friday. Additionally, donations will be accepted at the SBI Ticket Office beginning today and continuing until Dec. 3. All donations will go toward the Electrical Engineering Graduate Student Association.

Additional reporting by Dannielle O'Toole.

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