Medi Gouta was one of 28 San Jose State students who could only stand and watch helplessly Tuesday morning as firefighters doused their fraternity house with about 1 million gallons of water.

The students had safely evacuated the Kappa Sigma house and were waiting to see what might have survived the five-alarm blaze that destroyed the house.

Gouta, a 21-year-old software engineering student, didn’t have much hope that any of his belongings survived.

“I’m not sure how much I’m going to find there,” Gouta said about 6:45 a.m.

After the fire was extinguished, firefighters went inside to see what they could pull out. Fire engineer Soren Coats emerged from the house about 8 a.m. and walked over to Gouta.

He handed the international student his wallet and passport.

“I was very surprised,” said Gouta, who told firefighters that the passport was his only form of identification. “I thought they would not even care, there were so many other things to care about. But they care about people. They looked for it and found it.”

Everything else in his room — the only one on the second floor that firefighters could search after the roof collapsed — was destroyed. Firefighters also managed to pull out some memorabilia and other historical items from the ground level.

The students began cheering when firefighters emerged with some of the old photos and memorabilia dating back to when the San Jose State chapter of Kappa Sigma was founded in 1965.

“That was cool,” fire Capt. Mary Gutierrez said. “They’re happy with their photos, getting all of that.”

But Gutierrez said the 25-bedroom house at 168 S. 11th St., near San Antonio Street, “is a complete loss” and suffered about $1.7 million in damage.

One of the students reported the fire from his cell phone about 3:30 a.m. Gouta, the fraternity chapter president, said he was in a deep sleep when he was awakened by shouts in the hallway of his fraternity house.

“All I heard was people screaming, ‘Get out of the house,’ ” Gouta said. “I opened my door and was really confused.”

Some students went into the laundry room and attempted to extinguish a fire. Others went to the roof and found flames that “were a lot more fire than they could deal with.”

Once they were out of the house, “you could feel the heat” standing across the street, Gouta said.

Most of the students in the fraternity stayed during summer break because they were taking classes, working or both, according to Mathias Ritter-Armstrong, a 21-year-old justice studies major.

“It’s just terrible,” Ritter-Armstrong said. “We’ve all put a lot of effort into that house and to see the flames erupting out of the roof was horrible.”

About 90 firefighters responded to the five-alarm blaze that swept through the 20,000-square-foot building, Gutierrez said. A fifth alarm was called to bring in Santa Clara city and county firefighters, who served as backup for the San Jose crews battling the fraternity fire.

Firefighters needed about three hours to get the blaze under control. Because the blaze grew to a fourth alarm, fire officials requested mutual aid from other cities to back up three of the city’s stations.

One firefighter suffered minor burn injuries to his hands, but was treated at a hospital and returned to the scene, Gutierrez said.

The students have already found places to stay through friends, family members and other fraternities, according to Gouta. Other Greek houses brought food to the students this morning.

“We’re having support from other houses,” Gouta said. “Everyone has some place to go.”

San Jose State spokeswoman Pat Lopes Harris said the university would offer the students housing, as well as emergency financial assistance for food and clothing.

She said counseling also would be available to the students.

“We’ll offer them anything they need,” Harris said.

Contact Mark Gomez at 408-920-5869.