Students recover after fire at house

Residents of 4042 Sansom St. thought the fire alarm that woke them at about 3:30 a.m. was merely a case of burnt popcorn.

But the students soon discovered that their house was in flames.

The March 3 fire that engulfed the three-story rowhouse sent six Penn students and one Bryn Mawr College student to the hospital.

Five of the seven were treated for smoke inhalation at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and were released later that day.

One student was treated for secondary burns to the hand at the Temple University Burn Center and was released March 4. The final student was treated for carbon monoxide poisoning and deep secondary burns to his arm. He was in the intensive care unit at HUP until March 5 and was released Friday.

Firefighters had the fire under control by about 4:20 a.m. Its cause is still undetermined.

Friends of the residents said that a party was held at the house that night but that all guests had left by about 2:45 a.m.

College senior and house resident Kenneth Aulet said he was chatting with housemate and Engineering senior Elizabeth Plummer when the alarm sounded. He made a quick dash downstairs but stopped short when he saw the entire living room on fire.

After alerting some of his other housemates, Aulet exited through the front second-story window, breaking bones in both his hands and feet.

College senior Joe Russo, who was treated in intensive care through March 5, awoke in his third-floor bedroom to find it full of pitch-black smoke, he said. He was rescued by the Philadelphia Fire Department with a ladder and fainted shortly after.

"You couldn't see six inches in front of you," Russo said.

Engineering sophomore Julia Onorato, who was visiting Russo at the time, also climbed out of the window and onto the ladder.

The rest of the residents, including Wharton senior Ricardo Franco, College senior Nathaniel Kane and Bryn Mawr student Natasha Pettit escaped by jumping out the rear second-story windows.

Plummer was the only resident to escape through the front door.

"It was a straight shot," she said. "It was autopilot."

Another house resident, College senior Megan Lee, was not in the building at the time.

All five residents lost their belongings in the fire, but their landlord, Walter Wood Real Estate, relocated them to an apartment at 39th Street and Baltimore Avenue. Lee has acquired on-campus housing.

Penn's Special Services Department, the Office of Student Life and various other University departments have been providing support and assistance to the victims. Students were visited often while in the hospital.

"It was like a war room," Franco said of his stay at HUP. He said could barely squeeze in a phone call to relatives and parents because of visits from nurses and Penn officials.

Wharton senior Rob Forman, who lives at 4035 Walnut St., saw the fire break out from his second-story window just before going to bed at about 3:30 a.m.

Forman said he went into his backyard to see if anyone needed help but was forced to take cover when the second-story windows exploded from the heat.

"It was just so hot," he said. "I could feel it in my room."

At a March 3 press conference, Philadelphia Fire Commissioner Lloyd Ayers said fire trucks arrived within three to five minutes of the initial call.

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