No One Injured in HBS Fire, Several Displaced

A Harvard spokesperson confirmed Monday that no one was injured by the fire that broke out a few minutes before 7 p.m. on Sunday on the fourth floor of an apartment complex on Harvard Business School’s campus.

Four apartments sustained lasting damage—one from the fire and three from flooding due to fire hoses, according to a statement released by spokesperson Lauren M. Marshall.

In total, news reports estimated the cost of the damage at more than $150,000.

The occupants of the four apartments will be offered alternate housing by the University until their residences are repaired, Marshall said.

Marshall wrote that the automatic fire alarm system in the building went off in response to heat and smoke and sent a signal to the Harvard Operations Center. The Boston Fire Department responded to calls from the Harvard Operations Center.

The fire’s cause has been reported as electrical, most likely a power strip failure.

“The fire department was here very quickly,” said Yumee Song, a second-year MBA student at the Business School who lives on the floor where the fire broke out.

Once the fire department told onlookers that it was safe to return to their rooms, Song said, Harvard maintenance staff cleaned the building.

The cleaning efforts and safety checks prevented residents from entering the building until nearly midnight on Sunday night, the statement said.

The Soldiers Field Park apartment complex where the fire occurred contains a child care center and is billed as a good choice for students with young children.

Residents with families who were kept out of their rooms until late on Sunday night were offered overnight lodging on Sunday at the Doubletree Guest Suites near the Business School’s campus, Marshall wrote.

—Brian C. Zhang contributed to the reporting of this article.

—Staff writer Amy Q. Friedman can be reached at afriedman@college.harvard.edu.