Eliot Grille Fire Forces Evacuation

A fire at the Eliot House grille tonight forced the evacuation of House residents and caused smoke damage throughout the House tunnels.

The cause of the fire had not yet been determined.

Fire alarms sounded just after 8 p.m., and Cambridge Fire Department (CFD) units responded to the scene within five minutes

“It became quite serious quite quickly; it was important for everyone to get out,” said Eliot Co-Master Anna Bensted.

Co-Master Lino Pertile said he tried to go down to the grille after he heard the alarm, but the smoke was too thick.

“There was dense, black smoke coming out of the basement,” he said. “I tried to go down, but I couldn’t.”

By the time the fire had been extinguished, four fire engines and four ladders had responded to the scene; along with both of CFD’s rescue units, three ambulances, and eight of the 11 Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) officers on-duty.

HUPD Sgt. Kevin P. Bryant said that the fire caused “significant” smoke damage to the Eliot tunnels and to some of the student rooms located above the tunnels. He said that it did not appear that any student rooms suffered direct water or fire damage, although University officials were still evaluating the situation. He anticipated that students in unaffected rooms would be able to return to their rooms later this evening.

Hundreds of students from Eliot, Kirkland and Winthrop Houses gathered outside the police line on the MAC quad and watched firefighters and police officers file in and out of the building. The smell of smoke lingered throughout the area.

As he stood in the cold outside Eliot House at about 8:30 last night, Geoffrey A. Preidis ’03 wondered whether he could have done anything to avoid the fire after noticing a burning odor coming from the grille at about 7:30 p.m.

“A friend and I were walking through the grille to check our mail and we smelled something really strange,” he said. “It smelled like someone had thrown a grilled cheese into a campfire.”

Since Preidis and his friend did not see any smoke, he said they went back to their rooms, only to hear the fire alarm about 30 minutes later.

“I feel terrible,” he said. “Maybe we should have told somebody, but there are always funny smells. We didn’t think anything of it.”

--Megan E. Garcia, Alex B. Ginsberg, Garrett M. Graff, Zachary R. Heineman, Daniela J. Lamas, Robin S. Lee, and Jonelle M. Lonergan contributed to the reporting of this article.