Cigarette Ignites Sofa, Then House During Summer Bash

Source from:  8/28/07 dailyorange.com 08/29/2007

Students passing by 122-124 Redfield Place this weekend won't find a party. The house nearly burned down in mid-June. And students won't be moving back in until next semester, said landlord Ben Tupper, the building's owner. It will be at least two months until all the repairs are done on the three-unit house that caught fire after a party June 11, Tupper said. He plans to rent it again in the spring. "Literally, a cigarette butt almost cost these kids their lives," Tupper said. The fire started early that Tuesday morning and was caused by a cigarette that was carelessly discarded onto the second-floor balcony couch, said Syracuse Fire Department Lt. Ken Heffernan. Only one tenant was living in the three-unit house at the time of the fire, Tupper said. The tenant was a female student at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. She was hosting a party that extended into early Tuesday morning, Tupper said. Only she and one other friend were at the house when the fire broke out, and both were able to exit the house without injuries. All the tenants have currently found other living arrangements and aren't paying rent to him anymore, Tupper said. None moved to other apartments he owns, as he's sold out for the school year. "There's nothing salvageable," he said. "The house's second and third floors are totaled and will have to get stripped down and rebuilt." Reports stated the fire caused $150,000 in damages. Tupper said almost all, if not all, of the repair costs are covered by insurance. The Onondaga County 9-1-1 Center was notified at 4:02 a.m., and 11 fire trucks arrived at the scene seven minutes later, Heffernan said. Witnesses estimated that it took firefighters 40 minutes to extinguish the fire. The cracking and popping of flames early Tuesday morning awoke neighbor Dave Hammond, a recent Syracuse University College of Law graduate. Hammond lives at 111 Redfield Place. "It sounded like fireworks," he said. "I thought, 'Who's doing fireworks at 4 o'clock in the morning?'" When Hammond looked out his second-floor window, he saw the house completely engulfed in flames. "I felt the heat on my face from my room," he said. Hammond said he didn't see any police cars or fire trucks at the scene and decided to call 911. "I was scared it was going to start jumping houses," he said. "I'm surprised it didn't." Tupper sent an e-mail to all of his tenants later in the day alerting them of the fire and asking them to take precautions to avoid causing future accidental fires. "If you invite enough people to your place, eventually someone will do something stupid that ends in tragedy," he wrote. "Keep an eye on your friends, and keep things in line when you party." Enditem